Like Normal Kids
by GennaWeasley
Summary: This is one of those what-if-they-went-to-school-together stories. Only this one is a companion to "Crossing Over" and "Little Ones"! Addi & Nico are new students at Goode & you've got one guess who else is... The Kanes.
1. Against My Will

_A/N- Yeah, another story. Sorry if you're a reader of one of my other ones that is patiently waiting for an update – I update weirdly. I think this story will be lucky enough to get updated relatively soon. I have lots of ideas for it.  
>Where this story begins, Percy, Paul and Sally have been filled in on the fact that Addi is a goddess and all that jazz, Addi and Nico have just moved into an apartment in the same building that the Jacksons live in, Addi and Nico are about to start at Goode High School (Nico as a freshman and Addi as a Junior because she frequently appears as a 17-year-old) and Percy has just started classes at a local college (don't ask me which one, I really haven't put any thought into it at all). On the Egyptian side, Carter and Sadie are also being forced to attend school "like normal kids" … as if that was ever going to work out…<em>

One: Against my will…

"Nico, honey, this is going to be good for you," Addi insisted.

"Ugh, Addi, don't call me honey when you're trying to convince me to do something," replied Nico.

Addi shrugged. "Why should I change my habits? You're already signed up and there's no backing out now."

"I really don't want to go," complained Nico.

"You need to make some friends that are your own age, kiddo," Addi said.

Nico rolled his eyes. "Gods, Addi, **stop calling me that!**"

Addi laughed. "You are not getting out of this, Nico. School starts in two days, so start getting excited!"

"Can we just go upstairs now?" asked Nico, clearly trying to change the subject.

Addi looked around the apartment. There were still a few boxes and Styrofoam packaging from all the new furniture, but it was generally pretty clean. "Alright. Let's head upstairs. Percy said he'd be up there waiting with his mom and Paul."

"I know," replied Nico, "I was here when he said it." The two of them left their new apartment and locked the door before walking up two flights of stairs and knocked on the Jacksons' door.

Addi's brother opened the door. "Hey, guys!" Percy exclaimed. He hugged his sister and kissed his boyfriend.

Nico blushed when Percy kissed him. He pushed Percy away, mumbling, "Perc, not in front of your family…"

"I for one think it's adorable," commented Addi. Nico heard Percy's mother chuckle from somewhere inside the apartment.

"Let's go inside, then," Nico said. Percy, realizing that he was still standing in the doorway, stepped aside and allowed Nico and Addi to walk in.

"How was the move?" asked Sally.

"Everything went wonderfully," replied Addi. "As you know I asked my little brother and a few of our cousins to help put together all the furniture and stuff, so it went pretty quickly."

"It'll be nice that you're so close," Paul said. "We can help out if anything goes wrong."

Addi chuckled. "I doubt that anything will go wrong, Paul, I've been living on my own for an awfully long time. But thanks for looking out for us."

"And yet you're a junior in high school," joked Paul.

Addi shrugged. "I didn't want Nico to be alone for his first few days at school in such a long time!"

Nico rolled his eyes. "I _really_ don't want to go, Addi!"

"You're going!" exclaimed Addi, Percy, Sally and Paul simultaneously.

* * *

><p>Two days later, Addi woke Nico up far too early as far as Nico was concerned. She had already made waffles for breakfast, but ordered him to dress for school before he even thought about setting foot in the kitchen.<p>

"Paul's going to drive us there, but he's got a meeting this afternoon so we've made another plan for getting home," Addi said as Nico shoveled waffles into his mouth.

"'kay," replied Nico through a mouthful of food.

"Try not to talk with your mouth full, Nico," said Addi. "Oh, and _try_ to make some new friends. You need to be able to talk to some people your own age."

"People my own age avoid me," Nico said.

"_Demigods_ your own age avoid you. People who know who your father is and are too scared to get to know you because of him avoid you," corrected Addi. "Now come on, we're supposed to meet Paul downstairs in 5 minutes."

When they reached the school, Addi helped Nico find his first class before she went to go find her own. Nico wasn't really sure how she had become so familiar with the school already – it was her first day at Goode as well. He looked around the room and decided to sit in the very back corner, next to a blonde girl with purple streaks in her hair.

She gasped when she saw him. Nico glared at her and said, "What?"

The girl replied, "You look like someone I know, that's all." She paused for a moment. "I'm Sadie."

_Sadie…_thought Nico. _Like that girl Addi told me about from spring break. The Egyptian kid._ Instead of saying his thoughts out loud, though, he responded with, "Nice to meet you. My name's Nico."

Before their conversation could go much further, the bell rang and the teacher stood up. "Hello, class! I'm Mrs. Morgan! Since it's the first day, why doesn't everyone stand up and say their name, something interesting about themselves, and because this is world history class, their favourite ancient civilization."

Nico wasn't paying much attention until Sadie stood up and said, "My name is Sadie Kane, I lived in England for 6 years and my favourite ancient civilization is Ancient Egypt."

Nico stared at her for a moment. _So she IS that Egyptian kid! She probably thinks I look like Anubis, like Percy said._ Then he realized that it was his turn to introduce himself. "I'm Nico di Angelo, my sister calls me Corpse Boy because she claims that I sleep like the dead," he chuckled to himself "and my favourite ancient civilization is Ancient Greece."

"Corpse Boy?" repeated Sadie quietly.

"Well, usually it's 'Death boy', but I share that nickname with her boyfriend," said Nico.

"…that's kind of weird," replied Sadie.

Nico shrugged. "I know. But there's a good reason she uses that nickname for both of us… it's kind of complicated, though."

Addi was lucky enough to have English class first period. She walked into the classroom and before she sat down she greeted the teacher. "Hey, Blowfish!"

"I thought that I asked you and Nico not to call me that," replied Paul.

"Actually, you said we couldn't call you by your first name at school," Addi corrected. "You never said anything about fish related nicknames that I may or may not have picked up from my father and brother."

"Addi," said Paul sternly.

"Alright, Mr. Blowfis," replied Addi amusedly. She found a seat near the back of the room.

Carter Kane walked into the classroom, looked around and sat down next to a girl who looked vaguely familiar. When she saw him, she gasped quietly. Then, probably hoping that he hadn't noticed, she said, "Hi! I'm Addi. I'm new here."

"I'm Carter," he replied. "I'm new, too."

"Great," said Addi, "we get to be new together! Where'd you go to school before?"

"I was homeschooled by my dad. Then my aunt. My uncle decided that it'd be a good idea for my sister and me to go to a normal high school for a while," replied Carter. It wasn't the whole truth, but he wasn't going to explain the whole thing with the Egyptian gods to someone he had just met.

"Your sister?" repeated Addi.

Carter nodded. "She's a freshman."

"Oh, so is my brother!" exclaimed Addi excitedly. "His name is Nico. What about your sister?"

"Sadie," Carter answered. "So where did you go to school before here?"

"Nico and I were homeschooled, too," Addi said. "We actually just moved here from California."

"Oh! I lived in LA until I was 8," said Carter.

Their teacher, Mr. Blowfis, interrupted their conversation by starting the class. Toward the end of class, Addi handed Carter a note. It said, _Can I see your schedule? I wonder if we have any other classes together. _He handed her his schedule. A minute or two later, she handed it back to him. There was a sticky note attached to it that said, _English (obviously), Math, Mythology (nice class choice!) and we have the same study hall._ Carter smiled as he realized that he seemed to have made a new friend (far faster than Sadie had predicted). After class, she said, "If you'll wait a minute, we can walk to math together. I have to talk to Mr. Blowfis first, though."

"Okay," replied Carter.

Addi walked up to the teacher and said, "Blowfish, you're teaching the little one later, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I am," replied Mr. Blowfis.

"I know he's going to hate me for this later," Addi said, "but would you please just… check up on him. I'm worried that he won't make friends or anything and he'll just sit in the corner and not talk the way he does at camp."

"Of course," the teacher answered.

"Thanks, Blowfish!" exclaimed Addi. She gave him a hug and then walked out of the classroom.

"Blowfish?" repeated Carter.

Addi shrugged. "He's my cousin Percy's step father. That nickname was Percy's idea years ago. Blowfish is kind of the reason that Nico and I are here, actually." She smiled.

Math class was relatively uneventful. Then Carter and Addi both walked to their foreign language classes – Carter saw Addi walk into what she had told him was her AP Latin class as he walked into Spanish I. After that he had a very uneventful Current Events class which was his last class before lunch. Addi ran up to him. "Hey, Carter! Do you want to sit with me and Nico at lunch?"

"Sure," replied Carter.

"Okay, one minute, I've got to find Nico first," said Addi. "I'll meet you in the cafeteria." She ran off.

Carter found his sister. "Sadie, do you want to sit with my friend and me for lunch? Oh, and her younger brother."

"Sure," said Sadie, "Why not?"

They sat down at an empty table and pulled out the lunches that Khufu had packed for them. A minute or so later, Addi and Nico approached them. When she saw Nico, Sadie whacked Carter's arm. "Doesn't he look like Anubis?"

"Maybe a younger version of him," said Carter. "What about Addi? Does she look familiar to you?"

"Sort of," replied Sadie. "Have we met her before?"

"I don't think so," Carter answered.

Addi and Nico sat down across from Carter and Sadie. Addi said, "Carter, this is Nico. Nico tells me that he and Sadie are in the same World History class, so they've already met."

Sadie nodded. Carter said, "Hi, Nico. Nice to meet you."

Nico replied, "Hi."

Addi rolled her eyes. "Nico, honey, you've _got_ to interact with people."

"And you've _got_ to stop calling me honey!" replied Nico. "By the way, do you mind explaining why Paul approached me at the end of my English class to make sure that I was making friends?"

Sadie chuckled. Addi replied, "I worry about you, little one! You're so anti-social at camp and stuff –"

"Shut up, Adria!" snapped Nico. Addi giggled. Nico continued, "Look, Ad, I know you're looking out for me but you're acting like Bianca!"

Addi gasped. "No way! I'm not _that _overprotective! I let you watch movies and eat fast food and –"

"…What?" asked both of the Kanes.

"Oh," said Addi nervously. Nico stared at the table. Carter got the sense that one or both of them had mentioned something they hadn't planned on mentioning. During their earlier conversations, Carter had noticed that something about Addi's stories about their family seemed a bit… rehearsed.

Nico said, "Bianca was… er… she was our aunt. She was our guardian for a while. She was a little… well a lot overprotective. We loved her despite that, though. She was… really great."

Addi patted Nico on the shoulder comfortingly. "I know you miss her, Nico."

Carter felt like he and Sadie were intruding on something personal. It made him a little bit uncomfortable – especially since they were talking about this Bianca person in the past tense. He decided it would probably be best to change the subject. "So, uh, Addi, Sadie's in our Mythology class."

"Good to know," replied Addi. "Nic, aren't you in that class, too?" Nico checked his schedule and nodded. Addi continued, "So you two like mythology, too?"

Carter shrugged and Sadie said, "You could say that."

Nico and Addi looked at each other, apparently mildly amused by the reaction.

After lunch, the group split up and went their separate ways to their next classes. They reunited in their second to last class – Ancient Mythology (an elective that the Kanes had been kind of been forced to choose by Bast and Amos when they had insisted that they attend a normal school). Addi, Nico, Carter and Sadie all sat in a row behind the only other students in the class.

"Hi class!" exclaimed the teacher, a man who appeared to be in his late 30s or early 40s with brown hair. "I'm Mr. Shepherd."

"Hi Mr. Shepherd!" replied the class.

"We should go around and introduce ourselves," declared Mr. Shepherd. "Say your name and who your favourite god from any ancient culture's mythology is and the culture that they come from - just in case the others don't know."

Carter only caught the names of the first four students – Selena, Richard, Louis and Maura – but missed who they said their favourite gods were. Then it was his turn. "I'm Carter Kane and my favourite ancient god is Horus – he's one of the Egyptian gods."

Following Carter was, "My name is Addi di Angelo. My favourite ancient god is… uh…" Addi glanced at Nico before finishing, "arguably any of the Greek ones other than Apollo," she and Nico both chuckled "but if I have to pick one, it's probably Poseidon."

Nico grinned. "I'm Nico di Angelo, and my favourite ancient god is Hades, the Greek god of the Underworld."

"I'm Sadie Kane and my favourite ancient god is Anubis, the Egyptian god of death," Sadie said.

"That's three different death gods," commented Mr. Shepherd. "I'm not sure if I should be worried about that or not."

Louis, who had been the other person to name a god relating to death as his favourite, shook his head and Sadie and Nico both said, "No."

Carter chuckled as Mr. Shepherd launched into an explanation of the order in which they were going to learn about the different stories, gods and goddesses. He probably could've predicted Sadie's choice – she still had a poorly disguised crush on Anubis, even though he seemed far less interested in her than she was in him. Addi had been looking at Sadie darkly since she had mentioned Anubis. Nico had clearly noticed this as well, because he tapped his sister on the shoulder and whispered something to her and she seemed to relax a bit.

Carter and Addi both had study hall last period, which they spent sitting in the library and talking.

After school, Carter and Addi found Sadie and Nico waiting for them in the hallway. "Hey Nico!" Addi exclaimed. "Little One, I know I told you Paul wouldn't be able to drive us home, but did I tell you who _is_ picking us up?"

"Uh, no?" replied Nico. "Who?"

Addi didn't answer him right away. The four of them walked outside before Addi replied, "College boy," just as a car pulled up in front of the school.

"Percy?" said Nico, not noticing the car or the older boy with black hair getting out of the car and waving to them.

Addi pointed at the boy. "In the brand new car that his lovely big sisters got him for his 18th birthday."

"Who's that?" asked Sadie.

"That's Percy," Addi replied. "He's Nico's-"

"Addi…" Nico said quietly and a little bit threateningly.

"He's Nico's and my best friend," finished Addi. She glared at Nico.

"He's kind of cute," Sadie said. Nico glared at her.

Addi chuckled, whispered something to Nico that Carter didn't understand, was glared at by Nico and then looked at Sadie again and said, "He's kind of taken."

"Oh," said Sadie. "Is he your boyfriend?"

Addi laughed. "No…"

Nico laughed as well. "Come on, Ad, Percy's waiting for us."

They walked away and Sadie turned to Carter and said, "There's something strange about those two."

"They could say the same thing about us," replied Carter.

As they walked to the car, Addi and Nico talked in Ancient Greek. "_You came ridiculously close to getting injured, Ad."_

"_I was never going to say anything, Nico," _Addi said calmly. _"You said that you weren't sure if you wanted to tell anyone you were dating our dear Percy – why would I tell them if you didn't want me to?"_

"…_You wouldn't,"_ Nico replied.

"Why are you two talking in Ancient Greek?" asked Percy.

"So our new friends wouldn't hear him threatening me," answered Addi.

"New friends?" repeated Percy. "And you worried that he wouldn't talk to anyone!"

"Little brother, that's not really the point!" Addi replied. "Your boyfriend looked like he was going to stab me for almost mentioning that you two were dating."

"Well you shouldn't have mentioned it," replied Percy reasonably. "I thought Nico said he wanted to wait to tell people until he knew the kids here a little better so he could predict how they'd react."

"He did," agreed Addi. "But I wasn't going to say anything! I promised him that I wouldn't and you _know_ that I don't break promises. Sadie asked who you were and I told her you were our friend. She said you were kind of cute, "she shuddered dramatically, "and I told her that you were dating someone. Just for saying that, Nico gave me a look that clearly said _if we weren't standing in front of a bunch of mortals, I'd stab you right now!_"

Percy laughed. "Nic, you can't keep overreacting like that."

They all climbed into the car and Percy started driving. Addi said, "Little Cousin, do you remember what I told you about those House of Life kids? Carter and Sadie Kane. The same kids we befriended today."

"Did Carter recognize you?" asked Nico.

"I don't think so," Addi answered. "We did some cool stuff with the Mist so they shouldn't remember any of that whole thing." Then she added quietly, "Gods… that was embarrassing. Mellie wouldn't leave me alone about it for weeks."

"On the upside, wasn't that what brought you back to Anubis?" Percy reminded her.

Addi glared at the jackal charm on her charm bracelet and muttered something about Sadie in Ancient Greek. Nico chuckled and changed the subject. "Well I thought today went better than I was expecting it to be."

"Interacting with other people is never as terrible as you seem to expect it to be, Nico," said Addi.

Percy spent the afternoon and evening in Addi and Nico's apartment. He ate dinner with them and at 10 o'clock, Addi stuck her head into Nico's room. "Perseus, you need to be out of here in half an hour. Nico has school tomorrow and you have class as well."

"Fine," said Percy.

Half an hour later, Addi opened Nico's door again. "Little brooooooother!" she exclaimed. "Little One, you're leaving now. Nico, you should go to sleep around now, too."

"Do I have to?" both boys asked.

"Yes," she replied. "Go."

Percy kissed Nico goodnight and walked upstairs to the Jacksons' apartment.

_A/N- I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my newest story! Review, pretty please? I like reviews, they help me write better. OH AND IF YOU'RE FEELING LIKE YOU MISSED SOMETHING (maybe when Percy & Nico started dating…?) GO LOOK FOR MY STORY "Little Ones" BECAUSE THAT IS PROBABLY THE BIT THAT YOU MISSED. It's not a crossover & can be found with my other stories on my profile… =)_


	2. Life goes on

_A/N - This one's shorter... but I hope you like it! It's kind of just a filler chapter to go between the first chapter and the next one, in which stuff actually happens and Mel actually might meet Percy! (that's either in the next chapter or the one after that). Enjoy! Review! Read more! Reading is good. But you already know that, don't you? =)  
><em>

Two: Life goes on

Ancient Mythology quickly became Nico, Addi, Carter and Sadie's favourite class. The four of them also became good friends with Selena, Richard, Louis and Maura, the other members of the class. They spent the first few weeks learning about Norse mythology, which was apparently Louis's favourite.

One weekend, about six weeks into school, Sadie and Carter were wandering around, enjoying the fact that they didn't have to try to save the world anytime soon. They walked past a cemetery, and Sadie looked over the fence, probably hoping to see Anubis.

They saw him.

They also saw a girl who was dressed in black, with black hair and pale skin who had her arms around him. She looked suspiciously like –

"Addi," whispered Sadie. "Carter, that's Addi. And Anubis!"

"It might not be them," suggested Carter reasonably. "It could just be some weird kids who look like them."

Sadie shook her head. "I'm sure that it's them. I'd recognize Anubis anywhere," Sadie said. She blushed. "And look at the charm bracelet the girl is wearing – I've never seen anyone else with that combination of charms."

Carter looked at the bracelet. He recognized it as Addi's immediately – there was a sun shaped charm next to a jackal charm and Sadie was right, there was probably no one else in the world with those two charms next to each other on a bracelet. Carter grabbed Sadie's hand and led her to a nearby McDonald's. They ordered food and then when their food was ready they sat down at a table near the window. At a table not far away, Carter could see a boy with messy black hair, pale skin and black eyes wearing all black who was sitting across from a boy with black hair and green eyes.

"Sadie, isn't that Nico?" said Carter.

Sadie glanced over her shoulder. "Yeah, and that boy who picks Nico and Addi up sometimes – Percy."

_So it was definitely Addi that we saw earlier, _thought Carter. _She and Nico are never far apart._ While they were eating, Addi wandered into the McDonald's. She ordered a chocolate shake and then walked over to where Percy and Nico were sitting.

"Hey, boys! I thought you two usually went to nicer places on your dates," said Addi. She smiled and the boys laughed.

"We do," Nico replied. "And we had plans tonight. But you just _had_ to get in trouble, didn't you?"

"Yep," answered Addi. "It was pretty much unavoidable. Thanks for coming to pick me up, Percy."

"Any time, sis," Percy said. Nico threw him an angry look and muttered something about how it wasn't fair that she got to spend time with her boyfriend and he didn't. The two boys stood up and the three of them left.

"That was -," began Carter.

"Weird," finished Sadie.

"I was going to say confusing," Carter said.

Sadie shrugged. "That too."

"Are Nico and Percy dating?" asked Carter.

"It seems like it," Sadie replied. "That kind of explains that death glare that Nico gives Addi every time she mentions Percy… or the fact that Percy's dating someone."

"Do you think that maybe that's why they moved?" suggested Carter.

"What? So that Nico could be closer to his boyfriend?" asked Sadie.

Carter shook his head. "No. What if he was bullied or something and so when he was starting high school they moved?"

"All the way across the country?" said Sadie skeptically.

Carter shrugged. "They have some connection to Mr. Blowfis. Addi said that's why they're at Goode."

"Maybe we're over thinking this," Sadie suggested. "Maybe they're telling the truth and you're just trying to fill in the parts of the story we haven't heard yet."

"Perhaps," said Carter.

"I wonder if Addi even knows who Anubis is," Sadie said, completely changing the subject.

"I'm sure she's aware of the fact that Anubis is an Ancient Egyptian god," Carter said reasonably.

"You _know_ that that isn't what I meant!" exclaimed Sadie.

"Addi's pretty smart," Carter said. "She probably knows who she's dating."

Sadie frowned. "I don't want to think about it like that."

"You wouldn't," said Carter with a laugh.

When they got home, Percy and Nico both ran to the couch. Nico turned on the TV and put in a movie.

"Hercules? You both hate that movie!" Addi commented when she saw what movie Nico had chosen.

Nico and Percy both shrugged.

Addi walked to her room and flopped onto the bed. She rolled to one side and looked at the pictures that were lined up on a shelf next to the window. There was a picture of Percy and Nico from camp, a picture of Addi with her little brother, several pictures of Addi with her favourite cousin, a picture of Percy and Annabeth from when they were dating that she had stolen from Percy, a picture of their Ancient Mythology class after they had acted out one of the Norse myths – so half of the class were still dressed in their costumes, pictures of Addi and Mel from every major event they'd attended together in the last three years (there were a lot of those) and a few pictures of Addi and Anubis.

Addi was tired, but she wasn't planning to fall asleep until 10:30 when she was planning to kick Percy out of the apartment whether the movie was over or not. For a while, she talked to her sister on the phone, but eventually nearly fell asleep.

When her clock told her that it was 10:30, she walked into the living room to see that Nico had fallen asleep during the movie.

"I'll carry him to his room," Percy said quietly. He picked up his boyfriend and was about to carry him to his bedroom, but Addi stopped him.

"You should know, Mellie's planning to visit soon. She wouldn't tell me when, but try to be aware of the fact that she might just appear at your door sometime within the next few weeks," Addi told him. "Hopefully she won't just appear inside like I do sometimes – we wouldn't want her scaring anyone."

"So I finally get to meet my other sister?"

"Yep!"

Then Percy walked to Nico's room, carefully placed him on the bed, pulled the covers over him and then kissed his forehead.

"You two are too cute," said Addi from the doorway.

Percy rolled his eyes and left their apartment after saying goodnight to his sister.

* * *

><p>Sadie was more bothered than she should've been by the fact that Addi appeared to be dating Anubis. She knew it was silly, especially since he was about 5000 years old and she was only 14. Then again, Addi was 17 – only three years older than Sadie.<p>

_I bet she doesn't even know he's a god_, thought Sadie. _I'll talk to her about it on Monday._


	3. You're so Dead

_A/N- So apparently Nico and Addi are Harry Potter fans. Who isn't? _

_And this chapter is longer than the last one but not as long as the first. I'm having fun writing about these characters. I hope you're having fun reading about them. =)_

Three: You're so dead!

"…_All I'm saying is that just being the son of Hades isn't a good reason not to have cried when Dobby died in the 7__th__ Harry Potter book," _Addi told Nico before Ancient Mythology that Monday.

"And why is that?" asked Nico, accidentally switching to English.

Addi rolled her eyes and responded in Ancient Greek, "_Because Dobby was a well-loved character and his death was really really sad!"_

"_Addi, he's fictional. And not only that, he's not even a human character,"_ replied Nico.

Addi gasped. "_Why does that even matter? I loved Dobby! He was such a great character! I cried for half an hour when he died."_

"_Look, Addi, I have spent too much time around real people who have died to get too worked up over a fictional non-human," _Nico said. "_Although the next time we see Mel I'm going to ask how you reacted to the deaths of Tonks, Lupin, Colin Creevy and Fred Weasley if you cried for half an hour when Dobby died…"_

Addi stuck her tongue out at Nico. _"The last pages of my copy of Deathly Hallows are kind of crinkly the way paper gets when you put water on it from all the crying. Don't judge me."_

"_Consider yourself judged,"_ replied Nico. He laughed.

"_Gods, Nico, I told you not to judge me!" _ Addi said. She giggled as well.

"What're you two talking about?" asked Carter.

"Harry Potter," they both responded simultaneously.

"More specifically, the fact that Nico is super weird and didn't even tear up when Dobby died," Addi added.

"What language were you speaking? I didn't recognize it," Sadie said.

Addi and Nico looked at each other nervously. Nico said, "It was, uh…"

"Alright, class, we're starting Greek Mythology today!" said Mr. Shepherd, unintentionally interrupting Nico. Nico was glad not to have to explain that he and Addi were speaking Ancient Greek – that would've gotten confusing. Mr. Shepherd continued, "Can anyone tell me the names of the 12 Olympians?"

Addi and Nico both automatically glanced up towards the sky before raising their hands. Mr. Shepherd said, "Addi, go ahead."

Addi looked at Nico before saying, "Lord Zeus, Lord Poseidon, Lady Hera, Lady Demeter, Lord Hades, Lady Hestia, Lord Ares, Lady Aphrodite, Lady Athena, Lord Hephaestus, Lady Artemis, Lord Dionysus, Lord Hermes and…" she paused and touched the sun charm on her bracelet, "Apollo."

It took a lot of effort for Nico not to chuckle when he heard the dark tone that Addi used to say her ex-boyfriend's name. The other students in the class looked a little bit confused, either because they had noticed her tone of voice as she said the last name or because they had counted 14 gods, not 12.

"Excellent," said Mr. Shepherd. "Why did you choose to include Hades and Hestia?"

Addi glanced at Nico again, then shrugged. "They're Lord Zeus's older siblings, and even though they're not part of the 12, I don't see why they shouldn't be recognized."

"That's a fair point," Mr. Shepherd replied.

Nico leaned over and whispered to Addi, "_I bet we'll hear an awful lot of thunder while we're studying this."_

"_I don't doubt that,"_ replied Addi quietly.

During their study hall, Carter and Addi (who very rarely actually studied during study hall) were sitting in the library talking quietly when Carter pulled a note from Sadie out of his backpack and handed it to Addi.

"She told me to give this to you," he said. "She would've mentioned it during lunch, but you and Nico seemed pretty distracted by your Harry Potter discussion."

Addi chuckled. "You have to agree with me, he's so weird! I love him but he's crazy! We've been arguing about that all day. Every time he's seen me today he's rolled his eyes and told me that crying over Dobby is ridiculous." She looked at the note in her hand. _I'm pretty sure that Carter and I saw you over the weekend. What were you up to in a cemetery on a Saturday night? –Sadie._

"She's sure it was you," said Carter. "Your charm bracelet is pretty unique."

"Oh," Addi said. She stared at Carter for a moment. _Should I just tell him? It's not like he doesn't already know Anubis is a god… _Then she made a decision. "Well I was there because that's the only place I can spend time with my boyfriend. He can only appear in places of death."

Carter stared at her for a minute. "What?"

"Don't pretend you don't know who I was with," said Addi. "Anubis and I can't exactly go on normal dates, can we?"

"You… uh… You're dating Anubis?" asked Carter.

Addi raised her eyebrow skeptically. "You're not a very good liar, Carter. I know you know the Egyptian gods are real."

For a minute, it seemed like Carter couldn't talk. "Are… Are you from the House of Life?"

"If I was, you'd have been attacked ages ago," answered Addi reasonably.

"You have a point," said Carter.

"I did think that I saw you at that McDonald's when I went to find the boys," said Addi. "That was you guys, wasn't it?"

Carter nodded. "Uh, is Nico _dating_ that Percy kid?"

Addi studied Carter for a moment. Her hand started to move toward the Celestial Bronze dagger that she carried with her at all times, but then she thought better of pulling the knife out in the library. "Yeah. Do you have a problem with that? Because if you do I might slap you."

Carter shook his head nervously. "No! Of course not! I was just wondering, 'cause you mentioned something about them going on dates and Nico was grumbling about something to do with not getting to spend enough time with his boyfriend." He stopped talking and looked straight into Addi's eyes, even though she still looked kind of scary. "Addi, why didn't he tell me and Sadie?"

"Nico had no way of knowing how you'd react," Addi said. "Not everyone is… accepting. And Nico doesn't exactly trust easily."

"Oh," replied Carter. "Well, uh, should I not know?"

"No, _I_ shouldn't have told you. But since you just saw them out somewhere, I don't think he's going to stab me for breaking my promise," said Addi seriously. "And he really would have tried to stab me." Carter looked alarmed. "I'd have been fine. I've fought Nico before. He's good, but I'm better."

"What?"

"Oh my gods, I did _not_ just say that," muttered Addi. "I don't suppose you could just forget that last part? About, uh, stabbing and fighting?"

"I don't know if I should," Carter said. "You guys fight?"

"We train. Don't you and Sadie train together?" replied Addi. Carter nodded. "So you shouldn't be surprised."

"You just said you're not House of Life magicians," Carter pointed out.

"There's other types of people who need to practice fighting, Carter," Addi said.

The bell rang shortly after that. Addi and Nico were planning to walk part of the way home before Addi was going to teleport them home (there _must_ be a better word for it than that…). Of course, as most of their plans do, it wasn't that easy. When they turned down an alley so they'd be out of sight, they came across a few monsters that they didn't recognize. Nico pulled out his sword and Addi grabbed her dagger. They had just begun to fight the thing when they were joined by Carter and Sadie.

Before long, they had gotten rid of the whatever-it-was.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" asked Sadie.

Addi put her knife away. "We can't tell you that, Sadie. It'd be best if you forgot this whole thing."

"No, it wouldn't," replied Sadie. "You just fought an Egyptian monster and didn't even freak out for a second. Where did you learn to fight monsters?"

Carter had a look on his face like he had just figured out that two and two made four. "Wherever they learned, they learned together," he said.

"Clever, Carter," said Nico sarcastically. "How'd you figure that out?"

"Addi said you had trained together before," Carter answered.

"Adria!" Nico said, staring openmouthed at Addi. "_I thought we decided we weren't going to tell them, Adria!"_

"_We did… Nico, I accidentally mentioned that we'd fought before… best explanation is the truth. We train together,"_ Addi replied defensively.

"What are you two talking about?" asked Carter.

"We had a short discussion about what Adria is and is _not_ allowed to share," Nico answered.

"Gods, Nico, it wasn't on purpose," Addi said. "Stop using my full name. I get it, I slipped up." Then she looked at Nico carefully for the first time since before the fight with the monster. "Oh my gods, Nico, honey you're hurt!"

Nico glanced at the gash in his arm. "…Yeah."

"_Do you have any-"_

"_No."_

Addi checked her pockets. _"Neither do I. We should get home, I'm sure we've got some ambrosia there… At least, I'm hoping we do. Perseus will probably try to murder me if he finds out you got hurt."_

"_Why murder __you__?" _ Nico asked.

"_Because no matter how independent you are, you're still __my__ responsibility!" _ Addi answered.

"I'm not a little kid, Adria!" exclaimed Nico.

"Nico, that was English," Addi said calmly.

Sadie and Carter just watched them, confused.

"We should go," Addi said to them. "Nico's hurt. We need to go home so he can be healed."

"Uh, okay," replied Carter.

Addi put her arm around Nico and led him toward the street. They turned the corner and vanished.

Carter and Sadie ran to see where they were going, but when they reached the sidewalk, neither of them could see Addi and Nico anywhere.

"They really are odd," Sadie commented.

_A/N- Review? Pretty please? I really want a sense of what people think of the story. I'm going to go back to writing now. _


	4. A Visit and An Explanation

_A/N - Hey look, it's chapter four! Percy finally meets the Kanes...and Mel._

_By the way, if you don't know what "the Scottish Play" is, look it up 'cause I'm not going to say it. The reason that it is only referred to by that name within this chapter is that I personally, being the theatre geek that I am, pretty much never say the name (that way I have no chance of slipping up during rehearsal). I'm sincerely sorry if it confuses you.  
><em>

Four: A Visit and An Explanation

On Tuesday morning, the first thing that Carter noticed in English class was the bandage on Addi's upper left arm. When she saw him looking at it, she tugged the edge of her sleeve so the bandage was mostly out of sight. They were studying the Scottish Play, and that day Mr. Blowfis declared that they would be working on a group project that day. Richard Stewart from their mythology class moved to the back of the room to work with Carter and Addi. Their project was on Lady 'the Scottish Play' – and yes, that was _actually_ what was written on the top of the page. Carter was amazed that Richard and Addi managed to put together the entire project without using the name of the play. While they were working, Addi got a paper cut. She didn't seem to even notice it until a drip of a golden liquid landed on the desk. When she saw it, she squeaked in surprise and jumped up to ask Mr. Blowfis for a bandaid.

Carter looked from the drip of gold on the desk to the pen that Richard was using to write on the poster. His first thought had been that a pen had broken and it was ink, but Richard was writing in metallic blue. Then he saw the edge of the piece of paper that had cut Addi. It had a little bit of gold on it as well. When Addi walked back to the boys, she saw the drop that had landed on the desk and gasped. She snapped her fingers and for a moment the golden liquid turned red, like normal human blood, but it turned gold again almost immediately.

Carter's confusion must have shown on his face, because Addi said, "It's still gold for you, isn't it?" Carter nodded. "_Di immortales!_ I should've known you'd be able to see through the mist. You're a magician… " She added something under her breath in whatever language she and Nico always spoke to each other.

Carter was about to ask what she was talking about, but the bell rang, telling them to go to math class.

A few hours later, Carter, Sadie, Addi and Nico were sitting down to lunch at their usual table. Nico and Addi were, as they so often did, conversing in some language that Carter didn't recognize.

"Hey guys!" said Addi as she pulled her lunch out of her backpack. "Nico and I were wondering if you guys were free to come over this afternoon. We've got some things to tell you."

"We'll have to call our Aunt for permission," Carter said.

At the same moment, Sadie said, "Sure, why not?"

They looked at each other. At that moment, Carter wished that the two of them could speak some other language the way Addi and Nico could – it would make scolding Sadie in front of people so much easier.

He called Bast at the end of the day.

"…But where are you going to be?" she asked.

Carter rolled his eyes as he repeated, "At their apartment," for the fifth time.

"Alright," she said finally.

"Thanks, Bast. We'll see you later," Carter said. Then he hung up and walked over to the others.

"She said yes," he told them.

Addi smiled distractedly and Nico said, "I'm pretty sure my boyfriend's picking us up today, so look for a dark blue-green car." Carter and Sadie looked at him in surprise. He shrugged. "I know you guys saw us together on Saturday. We passed you when we were leaving, remember?"

Before either of them could respond, Addi pointed to a car. "There he is!" She led the way to the car and opened the back door. "I get to sit in the front today, Nico. My baby brother and I have some things to discuss."

That statement confused Carter, but he decided not to put too much thought into it as he followed Nico and Sadie into the backseat of the car.

"_These are the Kanes, Little One,"_ Addi informed her brother. _"We've told you about them."_

"Hi guys," Percy said to the Kanes. "My guess is that you've at least heard about me, because I've heard so much about you, but I'll introduce myself anyway. My name's Percy Jackson. I'm Addi's –"

"_Perseus!" _interrupted Addi. "_They don't know that yet!"_

"_Oh," _Percy replied. "_I wasn't aware of that…"_ He switched back to English. "I'm Addi's best friend and Nico's boyfriend." He shot a look at his sister. "I assume that I was allowed to tell them that?"

Addi smiled and nodded. "Look, Nico, he learns!"

Nico chuckled. "Percy, I think maybe you should come to our apartment when we get there."

"Don't I always when I pick you up from school?"

Addi glared at her brother. "Yeah, you do. And as much as I'm usually in favor of Nico doing his homework right after school so we can do more interesting things later in the evening, I agree with Nico. You should come with us. You're better at explaining… everything."

When they reached their building, Percy parked and Sadie and Carter followed Addi and the boys to Nico and Addi's apartment.

"Won't your parents be annoyed that you invited us over without permission?" asked Carter.

"Our dads aren't exactly a huge part of our lives," Nico replied.

"Your mom, then?" said Sadie. Nico and Addi shook their heads. She looked around. "Where _is_ your mom?"

Addi, Nico and Percy all spoke at once.

"Two floors up," Percy said predictably.

"The Underworld," replied Nico.

Addi's response was actually a second later than the boys', as though she had stopped to think how to answer. "Elsewhere."

"Remind me why we're doing this, sister dearest?" Percy requested.

"Because, Little One," snapped Addi, "I am probably the unluckiest goddess in the world." Then she realized what she had said and swore under her breath.

"What?" both Kanes said.

"Little Ones, start from the beginning," Addi ordered. "Please. I'm so terrible at explaining this stuff and –" someone knocked on the door. Addi jumped up. "Boys, talk. I'll go let Mellie in."

"Mellie?" repeated Percy.

"Yeah, Perc, my luck is _really_ that terrible," Addi replied.

She started to walk toward the door and she heard Nico start to say, "You know how the Egyptian gods are real? Well they're not the only ones…"

Addi opened the door to see a teenager with shoulder-length blonde hair and blue-grey eyes wearing a brightly coloured t-shirt that declared "Dead Men Tell No Tales" – Mel seemed to have gone out of her way to be a walking contradiction. Addi raised her eyebrows. Mel looked at the black and white t-shirt and black skinny jeans that her sister was wearing and gave her a look that pretty clearly said _you can't judge me, sis._

"Come on, Mellie, you should meet the Little One," Addi said. Mel followed her over to the others and they sat on the couch.

"…So who's kids are you guys?" Sadie asked Nico and Percy.

"Poseidon, god of the sea and earthquakes and stuff like that," Percy answered.

Nico smirked. "Hades, the god of the Underworld."

"Lord of the dead and all that jazz," added Addi.

Carter and Sadie looked ridiculously under-surprised when they heard that their friend's father was the Greek god of the Underworld. Then Addi remembered that their own father was hosting Osiris, the _Egyptian_ lord of the Underworld. Sadie looked at Addi. "So your dad is Hades as well, then?"

Addi chuckled. "No," she replied. "We've reached the first of the lies we've told you… Nico isn't really my little brother. He's my favourite cousin and best friend, but the role of annoying little brother is actually played by Perseus Jackson here."

"Wait a moment," interrupted Carter. "If Percy's dad is Poseidon and Nico's dad is Hades, doesn't that make you guys, like, first cousins? And you're dating?"

Mel answered, "Technically speaking, the gods don't have DNA. So demigods only have to acknowledge the family relationship if they want to – oftentimes people only acknowledge their siblings because they have so many cousins. Plus when you spend that much time with the same people, you're bound to fall for someone at some point."

Addi coughed - it sounded suspiciously like "Hermes" - and Mel glared at her.

"Wait a moment," said Sadie. "Who are you?"

Mel grinned. "Melodite, goddess of good," she declared. "And, uh, bad weather. But mostly good (as in, good people… not good weather. That's not mine)! And I'm Perseus's older sister. Most people just call me Mel, though."

"Good," Addi commented, "is a pretty vague thing to be the goddess of, Mellie."

"Oh, like 'concealment and hidden things' is _so _much better," snapped Mel.

Carter and Sadie just stared at them. Percy gave Mel a hug. "Nice to meet, you Mel. Thanks for the car."

"And, Mellie? We hadn't exactly gotten around to explaining Addi yet," Nico said.

"Oh," replied Mel. She looked somewhat embarrassed, but at the same time she really didn't seem to care.

"_We were going to wait to tell them,"_ muttered Addi in Ancient Greek. "_At least until after a year had passed since I popped up in Carter's room, but NOOOO. I fought a monster with__ claws__ yesterday and got out injury-free but a __**paper cut**__ foiled our plans. A Paper Cut! Because of course Carter can see through the mist…"_ She went on like this for almost a full minute before Nico whacked the back of her head to shut her up.

"Explaining Addi?" Carter repeated. "What do you mean by that?"

"Addi's not a demigod," Percy said.

Carter thought about this for a moment. "…the golden blood… You're a goddess, aren't you?"

Addi smiled and nodded. "Adria di Angelo-Jackson, Percy's older sister, Nico's best friend and the goddess of concealment and hidden things. Generally the gods don't have last names, but I couldn't let Nico start school alone – not after what happened at his last school… So I adopted Nico's last name and convinced everyone that I'm his sister. Jackson is Percy's last name, and since he's my little brother I have had to use his last name once or twice." She pulled the two boys close to her (she had sat down between them). "They're the best brother and cousin I could ever have asked for," she added, unnecessarily loudly.

"Apollo's going to hate that you said that," commented Mel.

"Let him hate it," replied Addi. "I've said it to his face. Nico is my favourite cousin and always will be."

"Hey Addi," Nico said, "maybe you should tell them about the other thing, too."

"Oh yeah," she replied, releasing Percy and Nico. "Last spring – right around spring break – I, uh, there were some problems. You don't remember this – or at least, you shouldn't – but Anubis had given you an amulet that was supposed to help you find some allies." She pulled the jackal amulet out from under her shirt so that they could see it. "It kept pulling me to it nearly every time I tried to transport myself places… So I appeared in Carter's room at your house three times… then manipulated the Mist so you wouldn't remember."

"That explains a lot, actually," Sadie said after a moment.

Carter nodded. "When we first met you, both of us had this feeling like we'd met you before."

"Now you know why," said Percy.

"It was because my sister is lousy at teleporting!" Mel said.

Addi rolled her eyes. "For the four hundred and sixty seventh time, it was Anubis's stupid amulet, Mellie!"

"Anubis," Sadie repeated. "Explain _that._ I want an explanation for why we saw you in a graveyard with Anubis."

"Anubis was my friend for a very very long time, Sadie," replied Addi. "We lost contact for a while after Lord Zeus threw a fit about me being friends with one of the Egyptians because he had just had this huge argument with some of the Egyptian gods. Dad backed him up, but Uncle Hades was on our side. Anyways, after the incident with the amulet, Anubis and I got close again. Actually, we've, uh, been dating since April." There was a loud crack of thunder. "He still disapproves, but has given up on trying to stop us."

"Oh," said Sadie. She looked kind of disappointed, but at the same time kind of like she'd been expecting it. Mel patted her on the shoulder sympathetically.

They continued to talk until Carter got a call from Bast saying that it was time for them to leave.

"One more thing," Nico said before they left, "you can't tell anyone what we've told you today. That would be really really bad."

"Of course," the Kanes replied. Then they walked out the door.

Percy looked at his sisters and boyfriend. "Hey, my mom decided that we were having breakfast for dinner today. Do you want to come upstairs and eat some blue waffles?"

_A/N- I love Mellie. She's really great (and a borrowed character, from my close friend Julianna). [And JJ deserves credit for such an amazingly great character that I definitely don't write as well as she does.]_

_It may seem like this is the end - because the Kanes know the di Angelo "siblings" are related to the Greek gods and the di Angelos and Percy know the Kanes are magicians - but it is not. One thing that I have up until now failed to mention is that this story is going to follow the entire school year - and this chapter only takes place around the end of first quarter. There's still 2nd quarter, Christmas break (and a Bianca-related breakdown), 3rd quarter, Spring Break (and Percy & Nico's aniversary! awwh!), 4th quarter and the end of the year. So do try not to forget that this story exists. =) _

_I think you're awesome just for reading this & I'd absolutely love to know what you think of the story!_

_this Ridiculously long Author's Note is now over._


	5. Unforgettable

_A/N - You should be forewarned, this chapter is named for the fact that 'remembering' is a key theme - remembering Silena. Remembering **Bianca**._

Five: Unforgettable

2nd quarter began quietly. Nothing particularly interesting was scheduled to happen until after Christmas, when everyone had finals. The only noticeable difference between 1st and 2nd quarter was Nico's attitude. He still hated school considerably more than the average freshman, but he hated it considerably less than he had hated the idea of it before school had actually started. He finally had some non-demigod friends. Admittedly, there weren't many of them and Richard, Louis and Selena were all older than him, but they existed and they were alive – which as far as Addi and Percy were concerned was a pretty big deal. Sadie Kane and Maura Watson were very hard to separate from Nico during their classes together – so much so that teachers started assigning them seats on opposite sides of the room and still hadn't been able to stop them from communicating during class. Nico kept his new friends pretty close – mostly.

One day in November, Selena Reid approached him during some free time at the end of their Ancient Mythology class.

"Nico?" she said.

"Hey Selena," replied Nico without looking up from what he was doing.

"Nico, are you mad at me?" Selena asked.

Nico looked up from the half-finished drawing he was working on. "No. Believe me, you'd know if I was mad at you. But, uh, why do you ask?"

"Well, you've been kind of distant lately," answered Selena. "But only with me, not the others."

Nico sighed. "Not too long ago, I spent the weekend with some old friends. We were reminiscing and stuff… and someone brought up this girl we used to know – Silena Beauregard. Really there was no way she wasn't going to come up in the conversation…" he paused, realizing that he was getting off topic. "You two shared a name – well, actually I think she spelled it differently, but that's beside the point – and you kind of remind me of her… She died a few years ago, and ever since Beth mentioned her… it's been hard to talk to you without thinking about her."

"Oh," said Selena. She brushed her dark hair out of her face to look at what Nico was drawing. It was a picture of two still faceless teenagers sitting in the doorway of a grey building. Behind them (inside the building), Selena could see a few bunk beds and a small fountain. "What's this, Nico?"

"Some old friends in front of their cabin at camp," Nico answered. He went back to work, putting a lot of effort into getting Addi's black and orange (and purple) Camp Half-Blood tank top and Percy's orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt just right. The drawing was vaguely based off of a photo that he had taken at camp last summer that was taped up in Percy's bedroom and framed in Addi's.

"You still go to summer camp?" Louis said, in a tone of voice that threatened teasing (but not of such a kind that might make a usually irritable Nico draw his sword and threaten injury, which he occasionally received from some particularly rude seniors).

Nico looked up again, frustrated. "Yeah, Louis, I do, but if you say one word about how that's childish I'll –"

"Do absolutely nothing," finished Sadie. "Nico, I know you're sensitive about camp, but you can't go threatening people for not getting it." She turned to Louis. "He's having a bad day, Lou. Not a good time to bother him about, well, anything."

"Isn't it usually Addi's job to intervene when I threaten people?" asked Nico. Before Sadie could respond, he remembered. "Right, the juniors are on that field trip thing, aren't they?" Sadie nodded.

* * *

><p>The Thursday of the last week of school before Christmas was never going to go well. Addi knew it from the moment she saw the date they were getting out for Christmas break. That morning, she woke up and the minute she realized what day it was, she brushed a tear away from her eyes. <em>No,<em> she thought, _not yet. _She dressed in all black – not just mostly black like usual, but solid black. She tugged at the edge of her skirt before grabbing a scrap of black fabric and putting it in her pocket – just in case. Then she walked across the hall to Nico's room and opened the door quietly.

"Nico?" she whispered.

"Go away," replied Nico – or at least, that's what Addi thought he said. He was talking into his pillow.

She sat down on the edge of his bed next to him. "Nico, baby, I've been thinking… you don't have to go to school today… today's already going to be really tough for you."

Nico rolled over to look at her. He looked suspiciously like he'd been crying recently. "Thanks, Addi."

"Don't forget to eat something today, Nico," she said quietly. She patted him on the head and walked away to finish getting ready for school.

Addi was quieter than usual that day. When she sat down at lunch, Carter looked up at the lack of conversation in Ancient Greek.

"Where's Nico?" he asked.

Addi replied, "Home."

"Oh, is he sick or something?" said Sadie.

Addi shook her head. "Not sick…"

"Then what?" Sadie asked.

"He misses her," Addi replied sadly.

"Who?" asked Carter quietly. "And why does that keep him from coming to school today?"

"Bianca," answered Addi. She sniffled and wiped tears away from her eyes with the bit of black fabric she had grabbed that morning. "Today's the anniversary of her death… When she died, it was really hard on Nico."

"Oh," both of the Kanes said quietly.

"She was his sister… I couldn't bring myself to force him to come today," finished Addi.

"That makes sense," said Carter.

During their Ancient Mythology class, Addi, who was usually a bit of a know-it-all in that class, didn't say a word.

When she got home, she found Nico sitting in his room and working on a drawing of Bianca.

"How are you, Nico?" she asked quietly.

"I'm okay," he said. "The first year was the worst. I was alone and angry… it was awful."

"Well you've got Percy and me now," she replied. "He says he's going to come for dinner today, by the way." She paused. "I'll let you draw, for now, but later you're going to help cook dinner. Got it?"

"Fine," Nico replied.

When Percy arrived, he found Nico drawing in his room. Percy decided to leave him alone, because more than once he'd received death glares for interrupting Nico while he was working on something. So he walked into the living room and saw Addi curled up on the couch and staring into space.

"Did I ever tell you that I knew them before?" she said quietly to Percy, without looking away from the spot on the wall that was directly in front of her.

"Who?"

"Bianca and Nico."

"W-when?"

"Before." She looked at Percy, who had sat down next to her. "Before Maria died, before Uncle had their memories wiped, before they spent 60 some years in that dreadful hotel in Las Vegas. I knew them then." She paused and took a deep breath. "Bianca was such a sweet girl, then. Nico was the most adorable child that I'd met in a long time. Their mother, Maria, was one of the nicest mortals I've met besides your own mother."

Percy put his arm around his sister. "How did you know them?"

"Uncle Hades," she replied instantly. "He told me about these two children of his and invited me to meet them. He introduced me to them when Bianca was three or four, I think. Nico was still just a toddler. I appeared as a little kid, around Bianca's age, and she and I became friends very quickly. I… I wasn't there the day that Zeus tried to kill them. I thought my two friends had died with their mother, and I was prepared to never truly forgive Uncle Zeus." She paused. "Even after I found out that Nico and Bianca were still alive, I was upset. They'd never remember me, because their memories were gone… and on top of that, Maria really _was_ killed when that hotel exploded."

She took a deep breath. "When I heard that they had finally gotten out of that horrible place, I was happy. I was looking forward to getting to know them again. Then Artie told me that Bianca had joined the Hunters, and I was so glad that Art had gotten yet another amazing girl to join the Hunters - although I did feel kind of bad for Nico. Since he couldn't remember _me_, Bianca was all he had."

"How did you know she was still a good person?" asked Percy hesitantly. He didn't want her to get all defensive about her reasons for believing in the deceased daughter of Hades.

"Because although much of someone's personality is shaped by their experiences, the things that make up who they really are... those things don't have anything to do with memories. So if she was a good person, even if her memories were wiped she was still a good person." She wiped her eyes. "Do you understand, Little One?"

Percy nodded. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Anyway, then I heard about your quest. Of course, for a little while I was quite excited that Bianca would get to prove herself as a huntress and as a daughter of Hades. But when you guys reached the junkyard... I got this horrible feeling." She had to pause again before finishing her thought. "And then she... she... she died... and I never even got to meet her again. Never got to know the new Bianca."

Percy didn't say anything for a while. He just sat there with his arm around her comfortingly for a few minutes. Then a thought occurred to him. "Does Nico know?"

"No... thinking about all of that... it hurts too much."

"It's a good thing I heard it now, then. You don't have to repeat it," Nico said quietly. Percy realized that Nico had probably been standing there almost the whole time. He crossed the room and sat down on the other side of Addi.

She put her head on his shoulder. "Your sister was really great, Nico."

_A/N - it's a sad chapter. And as much as I would've loved to skip it and keep this an upbeat story, Bianca left this huge hole in Nico's life and I really couldn't just leave it out. It had to come up._

_On the upside, fun with Christmas for the next chapter! I'm planning to cover Christmas with the Kanes as well as Christmas with the Jackson-Blowfis-di Angelos (which might include a Christmas party. You've been warned...)_

_Review? Pretty please?  
><em>


	6. Sleighbells Ring

_A/N - I'd just like to apologize to my nonexistent readers right now. I haven't updated this in like three or four months and I feel absolutely terrible._

_Reading Son of Neptune gave me new inspiration, though. So instead of a mere school year story, this has moved to a whole new thing. It's going to be semi-based on HoO from here on. Needless to say, SPOILERS AHEAD. Not so much for SoN in this chapter, but definitely the chapter after next._

Six: Sleigh bells Ring…

So it turned out that Percy was very big on Christmas. He was very enthusiastic about decorating both apartments. They put up a tree in Addi and Nico's apartment and decorated it while listening to loud Christmas carols. Later that same afternoon they decorated a slightly larger tree in the Jackson-Blowfis apartment. Sally and Addi baked blue sugar cookies while Percy sang carols at Nico, trying to get him to participate.

Addi and Nico had been invited to a New Year's party at the Kanes' home. They were rather excited about it.

Oh how quickly things can change.

Carter and Sadie were very excited. They were spending Christmas together with their Uncle, who had flown back into town for the holiday. Bast was being intentionally unhelpful ("I'm a _goddess_. Why on earth would I help you get ready for a religious holiday for a _DIFFERENT RELIGION?"_) and Carter and Sadie had just finished decorating the tree.

"Sadie, have you finished your Christmas shopping yet?" Carter asked.

Sadie shook her head. "Let's go!"

They ran into Nico and Addi on the street.

"Hello!" Sadie called to them, waving.

"Hi!" said Carter. Addi waved silently as she and Nico approached the siblings.

"We're… we're sorry…" stammered Addi. The usually put together sort-of teenager sniffled. "But we… we can't go to… to the party."

"Addi, are you alright?" Carter asked.

"Why can't you go?" Sadie asked. Carter elbowed her.

Addi smirked. "Well… Neither of us can drive… I know it sounds stupid, but Percy's the only one of us who can."

"Then get Percy to drive you!" said Sadie.

Carter elbowed her again. "He's probably busy!"

"Yeah… let's go with busy…" replied Addi.

Sadie, finally noticing just how hurt Addi sounded, reached out and touched Nico's shoulder. "What happened to Percy?"

Nico shook his head and moved closer to Addi, who put her arm around him protectively. To Sadie, he looked like a small child hiding from a stranger. In that moment, Addi looked very much like she filled the role of protective older sibling. She looked over at Carter. They seemed to communicate in some older sibling language because Carter said, "Oh…"

Addi nodded sadly. She pulled Nico closer. He hadn't said a word since he and his "sister" had run into the Kanes on the street that afternoon. "Beth's leading the rescue effort," Addi informed them, "which, I think, is a comfort to Ms Jackson-Blowfis."

Nico, still clinging to Addi, nodded slowly and quietly said, "Me, too."

"We're leaving to help look for him tonight," Addi told the Kanes. "We'll find him, Nic" she whispered.

—-

"Nico," Addi whispered to her little brother, "Nico, do you see that?"

"Is that… Jason?" Nico replied.

"I think so," said Addi. "But the other two… Nico, they're Greek."

"Who's out there?" Jason called from inside the cave.

Addi and Nico glanced at each other before stepping into view. "Jason?" said Addi. "Jason Grace?"

"Do I know you?" the blond boy asked.

"Don't you remember?" Addi asked. "I'm Reid! You know, Areida? You've known me for years."

"And I'm Nico," added Nico.

"Didn't the kids at camp mention you?" Jason's companion - Leo, the girl had called him - said. "Son of Hades, right?"

Nico shot Leo a death glare. Addi nudged her best friend to remind him that killing Lady Hera's heroes would be a very _very_ bad idea. Instead of throwing something at Leo, Nico asked, "Jason, do you really not remember us?"

Jason shook his head.

Nico leaned over and whispered to Addi, "Ads, if Blondie's with the _Greeks…_"

"Maybe Perc is with the Romans," finished Addi. "But if Jase can't remember -"

"I don't want to think about that," Nico said.

"Guys, it was nice… uh… meeting you, but we've got to go," Addi said to the trio of demigods and the satyr sitting in the cave. "Hope you get your memory back, Jason!"

_A/N_ - _One more thing. If you guys actually exist, I LOVE YOU. If you don't... I lose nothing by saying that._


	7. Are you listenin?

_A/N - This is **not** my best chapter. For that, I'm sorry. This chapter is, on the whole, from the perspective of the Kanes. It pretty much covers from after Christmas to June, because let's face it - school is boring and Percy's missing. I have more interesting stuff to write about for summer._

Seven: …Are you listenin'?

For the rest of the school year, Addi and Nico's attendance was unreliable. When they were around, they were more subdued than at the beginning of the year.

"Carter, do you know where Addi is today?" Louis asked one day. "She offered to work with me on the Physics lab but I haven't seen her all week."

Carter shrugged. "As I understand it, the di Angelos have some major stuff going on right now within their family. I don't know very much else."

"Oh," said Louis, "I had no idea. Maybe I'll ask Selena to be my partner, then…"

A few weeks later, Addi and Nico walked into their second-to-last period Ancient Mythology class halfway through the lesson on Roman myths. They took one look at the words on the board and groaned involuntarily. "Sorry Mr. Shepherd," Addi said. "We're just… well, no one has any leads yet."

Mr. Shepherd nodded. Carter remembered the day when Nico and Addi had been held after class by Mr. Shepherd for being late and had confided in him that a close family member had gone missing. The rest of the class seemed mildly confused.

The following day, Selena found Sadie before lunch. "Hey Streaks, do you know what's going on with Addi and Nico? They're here today but I can't get Nico to talk to me – and it's not like the last time he wouldn't talk to me… he's not talking to Richard or Louis or Maura either."

Sadie glanced over toward the pale boy. He was staring at a half-finished drawing of Percy and not really paying much attention to where he was walking as he wandered toward their usual lunch table. "It'd be better to ask Addi that. I'm not sure what I'm allowed to share."

Carter and Sadie had offered to help in the search for Percy, but had been turned down.

One day after school, they walked out of the building and Sadie nearly collided with a blond boy who was waiting with a dark haired girl and a Hispanic boy. The boy apologized, claiming that he was responsible. "I don't suppose you guys know Addi Jackson and Nico di Angelo, do you?" he added at the end.

Carter and Sadie glanced at each other. Suspiciously, Carter answered, "Before we tell you, who are you?"

The girl said, "I'm Piper. These are Jason and Leo. Nico and Addi know us from camp."

"Are you part of one of the search parties looking for Percy?" blurted Sadie.

"Well," replied Leo, "we think we know where he is – I'm in charge of getting us there."

"How do you know about Percy?" Jason asked cautiously.

"Addi and Nico told us around Christmastime," Carter answered. "They're our friends and we would've figured it out when Percy stopped picking them up from school for the entire rest of the school year."

"Leo Valdez you had better have good news for us," Nico said menacingly from behind the Kanes.

"It's almost done," replied Leo excitedly.

Addi put a hand on Nico's shoulder to restrain him, just in case. "Leo, you've been saying that for weeks now. And I thought you said it wouldn't be ready until June."

"It won't," Leo admitted. "But it's getting close."

"Leo, honey," Addi said in her most threateningly condescending voice, "it's _April._ You know how important it is to me and Nico that we get to Percy_ as soon as possible._ So **stop** getting our hopes up like that!"

Piper stepped protectively in front of her friend. "Addi, that's actually not why we're here."

"I know where the other camp is," Jason told them excitedly.

Carter observed that Addi and Nico didn't look as excited as he would've expected. Actually they looked like they wanted nothing more than to slip into conversation in Ancient Greek, although that would do nothing for Jason, Piper and Leo's ability to understand them – which kind of defeated the point. Nico took a breath before saying, "And, uh, why did you come here to tell us?"

"You don't usually come to camp out of the blue after school," Leo answered with a shrug.

"We thought you'd be excited," added Piper.

Addi glanced at Nico before replying, "We are. It's just… it's been _months._ It's hard to get excited that in a month and a half we might get to see him again. Forgive us for not throwing a party."

"Okay, tell me you noticed what Nico did," Sadie said to Carter once they were home.

"What is it this time?" asked Jaz interestedly. The trainees were split between several schools so that they didn't look suspicious, and Jaz attended one of the other schools.

"He hesitated," Sadie said dramatically.

Jaz looked mildly confused but Carter raised his eyebrows. "When he was talking to Jason, Leo and Piper? I didn't even notice."

"I'm lost," said Jaz. "How is that significant at all?"

"Nico's big on thinking before he speaks," Carter explained. "I don't think I've ever heard him stumble over a simple sentence like that."

"He's probably just upset. This Percy kid's his boyfriend, right?" suggested Jaz reasonably.

"_Maybe we'll get lucky,"_ Addi said to Nico nearly two months later. "_16__th__ time's the charm, right?"_

"_He hasn't been here any of the other times we've come looking for him, Reid," _snapped Nico. "_What are the odds he will be this time?"_

"_Are you really asking about the odds, Little One?" _Addi replied, raising her left eyebrow.

Nico shook his head. He tugged at the edge of his aviator jacket. "_I just don't know if I can handle being disappointed again, you know?"_

Before Addi could respond, a familiar voice interrupted in English. "I've brought a friend," the voice said. It belonged to Nico's sister from the Roman side of the family – Hazel Levesque. Nico and Addi turned around to see Hazel standing with a teenage boy with black hair and green eyes.

_A/N - DUN DUN DUUUUUN. Oh, like you weren't expecting that._


	8. Harder than we thought

_A/N - DUN DUN DUUUUUUN. If you're actually reading this, LOOK! A CHAPTER! If you're not then boy, do I sure sound like a crazy person_

_Also: SPOILERS FOR SON OF NEPTUNE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE  
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Eight: Harder than we thought 

_-NICO-_

"I've brought a friend," Hazel called. Nico and Addi turned around to see Hazel standing with a teenage boy with black hair and green eyes. When they saw Percy, they froze. They watched as Percy took in their appearances - apparently they'd chosen a good day to dress _exactly_ the same, in black jeans and black t-shirts, although Nico also wore his aviator jacket.

"This is Percy Jackson," Hazel told them. "Percy, this is my brother, the son of Pluto, and his best friend, daughter of ... someone."

Nico recovered first. "Pleased to meet you," he said, holding out a hand. "I'm Nico di Angelo. My friend here is Areida, but most people call her Reid."

He elbowed Addi subtly. "Hello, Little One," she said automatically.

"Addi, I'm 18 - I'm not little!" Percy replied.

Nico's hand tightened on Addi's. Hazel stared at her new friend in confusion. "Percy, her name is Reid. Did you remember something?"

"I just... you reminded me of someone. Someone important, I think. And you - Nico? - you look familiar, too," Percy replied.

"I spend most of my time in the Underworld," Nico told him, "so I don't know what to tell you."

Nico felt Addi release his hand and slip her arm around his shoulder. He rested his head on her shoulder and let her talk for a while. She and Hazel explained about Gaea and the war to his amnesiac boyfriend. That was the thing, though - Perc could tell that Addi was _important_. He was just familiar. Addi, as though reading his thoughts, pulled him closer. _"He'll remember you soon enough,"_ she whispered to him in Ancient Greek under her breath.

_-PERCY-_

_I should know these people._

Percy was confused. He couldn't remember who those people were, but he had a feeling that they were important to him. It made his brain hurt. On top of that, every time he saw the girl - Reid, she'd called herself, although somehow that seemed wrong to him - put her arm around the boy - Nico, he felt a stab of jealousy. And that didn't make sense to him at all. Firstly, Nico and Reid looked enough alike that they could be siblings (although Hazel had kind of led him to believe that she only had one sibling, Nico), so they probably weren't dating or anything. But secondly, why in the name of the gods would he _care_? He had memories of Annabeth. Memories of being around her, fighting side-by-side with her, kissing her – it just didn't add up.

Percy tried to pay attention as Reid and Hazel explained about the current state of the demigod world, but he would occasionally glance at Nico, who seemed to be only half listening. The pale boy was a few inches shorter than Percy and almost exactly the same height as Reid. He didn't seem to want to stand still – he kept adjusting the skull ring on his finger and playing with the edge of his jacket. Percy thought it was kind of cute, actually. As soon as that thought crossed his mind, the 18-year-old looked back at the girls. _Annabeth, _he thought, _remember Annabeth. You don't even know this kid._

Hazel's friend Frank appeared. "Reyna sent me for Percy," he said.

_-HAZEL -_

Once Frank had walked away with Percy, Hazel turned her attention to her brother and his friend. Nico seemed distant (more so than usual) and Reid seemed to be hiding something. That surprised Hazel – Reid was usually a very good liar. It was as if something had caught her off guard, broken through her defenses. And Hazel had a sneaking suspicion that it had been Percy.

She was sure that Nico and Reid had met Percy before. But why would they lie?

"You guys wander the country most of the time," Hazel said. "Are you sure you've never seen him before?

Nico shook his head and Addi said, "Drop it, Cousin."

Hazel stared at them for a moment. Nico was acting _so_ weird – did they really expect her to just ignore it? The look on Reid's face was an answer to that – yes. It wasn't an angry expression, more worried and protective.

Nico was a pretty powerful demigod. He could take care of himself on the most part. If Reid was worrying about him…

-_NICO-_

_**Later that day**_

Addi and Nico had been standing in the shadows while Percy talked to Reyna. It was definitely not their best plan ever. As Percy walked away, Addi caught hold of Nico's arm, trying to keep him from running off after his amnesiac boyfriend.

"Nico! Nico, honey, you need to – NICO!" she said.

"You heard him," Nico snapped. "He said he thought he had a _girlfriend_. He's probably thinking of Annie. I knew this was too good to last. I knew he'd – "

Addi forced Nico to turn around. "He has **amnesia**, cousin. Aunt Hera took his memories away like she took Jason's. Of course he doesn't remember you but that does **not** mean that he is no longer in love with you."

"Addi… he remembers someone. Probably Annie. You'd think that if Lady Hera was going to leave him a memory of a person, it'd be me. Or if not me, why couldn't it be you? Aren't we important enough to stick around in his memories?" Nico asked. When he started speaking, it was with a fierce anger at their Aunt, but by the time he finished, his voice was uncertain. He looked his cousin in the eye. "_Aren't we memorable enough?"_

"Oh, Nico!" Addi exclaimed. She threw her arms around him and whispered back in Ancient Greek, "_Of course we are. He didn't have any control over what memories he kept. Nico, baby, we're the most important people in his life. He __**will**__ remember us soon." _She paused and smirked. "_Plus it makes it easier for us to stay undercover, doesn't it?"_

Nico chuckled. "Yeah, you could say that."

_A/N - Why do I do these things to the characters I love? Anyways, I like the style I'm writing part of the next chapter in. Even though it's difficult for me to write because..._


	9. Into Darkness, Into Light

_A/N- So as it turns out, this story got updated before Story Time. I'm sorry, Sydney (you're the only person who I know reads both). This chapter was difficult to write, mostly because of what happens in the first part. But the second part was actually kind of fun._

Nine: Into Darkness, Into Light

-_**NICO**-_

"Nico," Addi whispered, "Honey, stay close."

Nico chuckled. "What, scared of the dark?" But he took a step closer to her anyway. Addi's hand found his. Even though he was used to the cold and dark of the Underworld, it was nice to know exactly where his companion was. This particular cave-like part of the Underworld was almost pitch black, and the few places where there was faint light made Addi look almost ghostly.

"Nico," she whispered.

"What?" he quietly replied.

Her grip on his hand tightened. "Don't you see that?"

"No," he answered, "not everyone has your godly night vision." As soon as he said that, though, he felt it. Something had grabbed onto his free hand.

"It almost looks like part of the wall," Addi observed. Then she gasped. "Gaea! Gaea, let him go!"

Nico struggled, trying to free himself, but the feeling was creeping up his arm. Addi tugged at his other arm, but even together they were unable to get him free. The last thing Nico heard as the wall swallowed him up was Addi frantically calling his name.

"Nico! NICO! _NICO!"_

-_**PERCY**-_

"Gaea told me she'd captured Nico," Hazel said to Frank and Percy sadly.

"She – she _what_?" replied Percy. The moment that Hazel had said Nico's name, a thousand memories had flooded back to him.

_He saw a boy with black hair and olive skin talking excitedly about some card game. _

_Then the same boy, although with paler skin from time underground, talking to the ghost of his sister. _

_Then the pale boy was fighting monsters in New York City._

_And then Percy saw a girl with black hair and black eyes and very fair skin reading a book on the top bunk of a set of bunk beds, who looked up at him, gasped and then vanished. _

_He walked into a black cabin, where the boy and girl were talking animatedly._

_The girl was hanging upside down by one leg from the bunk she'd been on before, her leg tangled up in the blue sheets. The boy was on the bunk underneath her, laughing hysterically._

_He was fighting the boy – training. The girl stood by the side, face lit up with laughter, wearing a black and sea blue cheerleading uniform._

_He walked into the black cabin again, looking for someone. He spoke to the boy, who quickly shushed him, gesturing to where the girl was lying facedown on the black sheets of the other bed. Her ghostly pale right arm dangled over the edge of the bed. Percy tried not to laugh as she rolled over and pulled a teddy bear close to her._

_He was in his room at home, and there was the girl. She had fallen asleep waiting for him, and her black and white appearance – black shorts, black tank top, black hair, black nail polish, very pale skin – looked oddly out of place in his colourful room._

_The three of them stood in a cemetery. The girl looked excited; the boy wore an expression of mild interest._

_They were walking down the street, and he was freezing. Suddenly, he felt a familiar jacket – the one belonging to the boy, who was __**always**__ cold – warming his arms. He tried to return it, but the boy shook his head._

_They were in a park, sitting on a checkered blanket. The girl was talking energetically, trying to explain something to Percy and the other boy. She made a triangle with her hands as she tried to illustrate her point. Percy glanced at the boy, who shrugged and continued eating his double chocolate ice cream._

_They were in an elevator, and he was standing between the boy and girl, who were both poking him repeatedly._

_The scrawny pale boy fought camper after camper and won. The girl was again in her black and blue cheerleading uniform, jumping and cheering by the side of the arena._

_The boy insisted that Percy needed to sit still. The girl threw a pen at him every time he squirmed or fidgeted. The boy was just trying to get a good picture of him to work off of for a drawing – why was it taking so long?_

_They were standing in the cabin with the fountain between the bunk beds, discussing books. Percy was disinterested, but they talked at him anyway._

_He was in the boy's arms, and nothing else mattered._

_The boy was finally kissing him, and the girl interrupted them. She apologized, walked away, and then the boy was kissing him again._

_Percy and the girl were out shopping, looking for the perfect Christmas present for the boy. Percy was asking why she cared so much about Christmas – for some reason it didn't make sense to him that she celebrated it._

_The boy was sitting on the couch, laughing hysterically as Percy sang Christmas carols loudly._

_He was home, and they were on either side of him._

_The girl had her arm around the boy. The boy's head rested on her shoulder. The girl was helping to explain the current state of the world for demigods._

Percy gasped.

"What is it, Percy?" asked Hazel concernedly.

"Why didn't they recognize me…?" mumbled Percy.

"Who?" Frank asked.

Percy shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. "Addi and Nico… they… they're the two most important people in my life. Why didn't they just… say something?"

"Addi," repeated Hazel, "isn't that what you accidentally called Reid at camp?"

"Reid, Addi… they're the same person, Hazel," Percy told her. Hazel and Frank stared at him confusedly. He sighed. "Addi goes by several different names. For you, she's Areida something-or-other. For me, back home, she's Addi Louise di Angelo-Jackson and I can _not_ believe she and Nico didn't tell me that!"

"You're saying you know Hazel's brother and his friend from somewhere else?" Frank asked.

"Of course I do," answered Percy immediately.

"Uh, how?" asked Frank.

"They're… they're…" Percy paused. "They're my sister and my boyfriend."

"Your _boyfriend?_" repeated Hazel in surprise.

Percy nodded. "They live in an apartment two floors below mine."

"You're dating my brother?"

_Wow, _thought Percy, _Hazel seems to be having a hard time getting past that. _Out loud, he said, "Yeah. Since … Oh my gods…"

"What's wrong?" Frank asked hesitantly.

"I missed our anniversary," Percy replied angrily. "That's it – next time I see Aunt Hera, I'm going to –"

"Do absolutely nothing," finished Hazel. "She's a goddess, remember?"

"Then I'll have Addi and her boyfriend deal with her," Percy mumbled. "Would you guys mind if we made a detour? I want to stop in a cemetery – I have to talk to someone."

_A/N- Percy has decided to talk to Anubis about his options for dealing with his ever-so-slightly frustrating Aunt Hera/Juno, even though for multiple reasons there isn't much the Ancient Egyptian God of Death can do - although maybe he can help Percy, Frank & Hazel find his Greek/Roman counterpart._

_I am also pretty proud of the title I came up with for the title. "Into Darkness" refers to Nico's capture, "Into Light" refers to Percy getting his memories back._


	10. Visitors

_A/N - Finnie is a procrastinator 2011! This is what I wrote when I was supposed to be working on my NaNo story._

Ten: Visitors

Jaz was confused. First of all, it was 9:45 in the evening and the doorbell was ringing. Secondly, even if it wasn't awfully late for someone to visit, they never got visitors.

Ever.

But she walked to the door anyway. When she got there, she saw a girl leaning against the doorway with her hand over her eyes. The girl was ghostly pale, with black hair that fell just past her shoulders. She wore a black leather jacket, a black & white Goode High School t-shirt, and black skinny jeans. She looked familiar to Jaz, but Jaz wasn't really sure why until the girl held out her hand to her.

"You're Jaz, right?" she said. Jaz nodded hesitantly. "I'm Addi. Are Carter and Sadie home?"

"Yeah," Jaz replied. She called over her shoulder, "SADIE! CARTER! YOUR FRIEND ADDI IS HERE!"

A moment later, Carter and Sadie came thundering down the stairs.

Carter was shouting, "What's wrong?"

At the same time, Sadie was asking, "Where's Nico?"

Jaz chuckled. "Of course you only care about whether there's a guy around."

"Nico and Addi are all but inseparable outside of school," Sadie replied, rolling her eyes. "If he's not here… Addi, what's wrong?"

"Gaea captured him, Sadie. I watched her pull him into the ground," Addi told them. "Carter, I'm a failure as a sister. I've lost both of them, C."

Carter put a hand on her shoulder. "You're not a failure. Ads, you're one of the best big sisters I've ever seen – and you're not even Nico's real sister!"

"Nico was captured and I couldn't do anything. Percy doesn't recognize me. I've seen him, C, he looked right at us and it was like he'd never met us before," snapped Addi. Jaz could see that the older girl was fighting back tears. "I went to the cemetery where I usually meet Anubis, but I couldn't get ahold of him and I wasn't sure where else to go – Mel's so cut off from all this, you know…"

Carter awkwardly put his arms around Addi. Jaz decided not to intrude further on their conversation and walked up the stairs to where the other trainees were.

"Uh, Percy, who is that?" Hazel asked. They were standing in a Canadian cemetery and a teenage boy who looked like an older version of Nico had just appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

"Reid's boyfriend," answered Percy. "Hello, Anubis."

"Hello, Perseus," replied the boy. "I don't often see you on your own. Is something wrong?"

"Do you think it'd be possible for me to murder my Aunt for making me miss my anniversary?"

Anubis chuckled. "She's immortal, remember? And if your real question is where my Greek counterpart is, I'm afraid I can't help you. I haven't spoken to him in several months, I'm afraid."

Percy sighed. "Unhelpful as that is, that's not why we're here."

"Then why are you here?" Anubis asked.

"Because," replied Percy grimly, "my great-grandmother on the godly side has kidnapped my boyfriend."

Anubis's eyes widened. "How did you find out?"

"Gaea told Hazel," Percy answered.

"Look, I hate to interrupt," interrupted Hazel, "but WHO IN THE NAME OF PLUTO IS THIS GUY?"

Anubis looked over at her and Frank for the first time. "Osiris," he corrected.

"What?" Frank and Hazel said simultaneously.

"I'm Egyptian, silly demigods," explained Anubis. "Didn't they teach you anything at that camp, Hazel Levesque?"

Hazel gasped. "How did you –"

"Close your mouth, Miss Levesque. We are not a codfish," ordered Anubis. "Your death mightn't be my responsibility, but I still know who you are. You, too, Frank."

"You're scaring them, Anubis," Percy scolded.

Anubis chuckled. "I do that to people." His expression turned serious. "How do you intend to save Nico?"

"We're on a quest," replied Percy. "But, uh, when you see Addi… give her a hug for me, okay? She's probably freaking out."

"Of course," Anubis answered.

"Oh, and tell her I remembered them. That might help her feel a bit better," added Percy.

Anubis smiled. "She and Nico are lucky to have you, Perseus."

In the eyes of most people, Addi would've probably been considered an oddball even if she _wasn't_ a goddess. She decided this while sitting in a tree in her favourite cemetery. Yeah, that was exactly **why** she was such a strange person – not only did she have a favourite, she went there when she was upset and sat in trees. Her feet dangled below her. She was swinging them lazily, trying to enjoy the relatively warm summer night. The temperature dropped suddenly, and so did Addi. She landed neatly on her feet in front of Anubis. He held his arms out to her. She fell into his arms, trying to forget as much of this horrible week as she could. Except that she knew that no matter how tightly she clung to him, or how long they stood there, her boys were still gone - one physically, the other mentally.

"I talked to Percy," Anubis told her.

She pulled away from him a bit. "You've seen him? Is he alright? How are Frank and Hazel? Have they gotten to Than-"

"Ads, relax. Percy's fine for now, as are his companions. No, they haven't yet reached Thanatos, but I'm fairly certain that they will," he said. "And he wanted me to tell you his memory's coming back. He remembers you and Nico - and rather wants to kill your aunt for making him miss his anniversary."

Addi tightened her grip on Anubis again. "I lost Nico, An. Gaea took him away and I couldn't do anything."

"No, you couldn't. So stop beating yourself up about it, okay?" He gently kissed her on the forehead. "You and your brother would do anything for that boy. I don't doubt for a second that you'll get him back."

"I hope you're right, An."

"Don't worry, Ads. I am."

_A/N - I really really really like writing Addi/Anubis. I do. And since Sydney likes to read about them... _


	11. Unofficial Titles & Annoying Professions

_A/N - I have a story to write for school and a chapter of Story Time that I meant to have up by last Tuesday, but what do I write? A semi-illogical chapter of Like Normal Kids! _

_Sam and Brooke are from a book called Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, which __I highly recommend. _

Eleven: Unofficial Titles and Annoying Professions

Percy had been successful. Not only in freeing Thanatos but also in saving the camp. Surely Addi was as proud of him as she had been when good things had happened in the past, but he was having trouble even finding her.

He found her in a tree, and had a nagging feeling that it wasn't the first time it had happened. Her ghost white legs were dangling below her and – in a moment of extreme déjà vu – Percy tugged on her left ankle and she tumbled down from the tree. He caught her and held her tight until her breathing and heart rate had returned to normal.

"I did it, Ads," he said as he gently put her down.

Addi smiled weakly. "Yeah you did little brother."

"You thinking about Nico?" the teenager asked after a short pause.

"Aren't you?"

"Always."

"Cute," Addi said to him. "I'm so worried about him."

Percy pulled her closer. "I am too, sis."

Addi only stayed at Camp Jupiter long enough to help the Camp Half-Blood kids get settled.

"Addi! Wh-what are you doing here?" Annabeth asked when she got off of the flying ship they'd arrived on.

"Shh, Beth, I'm Reid here," replied Addi with a chuckle. "Perseus is over there."

"But why are _you_-"

"Annie, it'd be best if you stopped asking, she's never going to answer you," Percy said. He held out his arms and the blonde girl flew toward him.

"Percy! We've been so worried! Oh, you should've seen your sister and Nico," responded Annabeth.

"I have – not that I recognized them at the time," replied Percy.

"Perc, I'm going to be out of town for a few days," Addi whispered to him. "I'll come check in on you in a week or two." She kissed him on the cheek. "'Bye, little brother."

No matter where in the country she was, it was always comforting for her to be in a cemetery. Partly because that was the easiest place to meet with Anubis, but also because of the quiet. And as the unofficial goddess of tree climbing, she appreciated the nice trees many cemeteries contained. She was waiting in the higher branches of a tree in a cemetery in Seattle for Anubis to finish whatever he'd been working on when she'd contacted him. She felt the familiar, usually comforting chill that usually accompanied Nico's quiet chuckle, Anubis's embrace or Uncle Hades's dark glare – in other words, it was a chill that usually went along with the presence of someone with power over death.

Addi pulled her legs up into the tree, having temporarily forgotten that _disguise _was actually part of her title. She was kind of caught up in her realization that whoever this was, they were **not** Nico, Anubis or Uncle Hades.

"Is someone there?" said the voice of a young man.

Addi looked down at him. He didn't look threatening – nor did he look remotely like any of the people she knew who had power over death. She flipped over and hung from the branch she'd been sitting on, with her head (though upside down) at about the same level as the boy – Addi guessed that he was about Percy's age – standing below her. "Who are you?" she asked cautiously.

"I'm Sam," he replied. "I'm, uh, visiting the grave of a friend of mine."

Addi slipped out of the tree, flipped over and landed gracefully on her feet. He wasn't lying, but he wasn't telling the whole truth. She stared at him for a moment, trying to determine the truth.

Okay, so technically he _was_ visiting the grave of his friend Brooke, but… she was with him as a spirit. So why was he – oh, Brooke had insisted that he put fresh flowers out. How sweet of him to listen to her. And his full name was Samhain. Samhain the necromancer – it had a nice sound to it, didn't it?

"Okay, So-win," she said, splitting the syllables like they were two separate words, "I'll buy it. Hello, Brooke."

The girl had just kind of materialized. Addi assumed that in his surprise, Sam had stopped trying to hide her. Sam said, "How did you –"

"No one can hide anything from me, I'm the –" began Addi. Then she realized how easy it should have been for her to conceal herself earlier. "I'm a moron."

"What?" Sam asked with a look of utter confusion on his face.

The temperature dropped even more. "You are not."

Addi felt a pair of very familiar arms slide around her waist. Anubis kissed her on the cheek. Sam and Brooke stared at them with expressions of disbelief on their faces – Anubis had appeared pretty much out of nowhere. "An, this is Samhain. He's a nec-ro-man-cer," she said carefully. "That's his friend Brooke. She's dead, but you already knew that."

Anubis groaned. "I hate necromancers. They make my job so difficult."

"I know you do, An," Addi said. "But, uh, he's on Seattle's Council, so don't hurt him or anything okay?"

"Um, who are you two?" asked Sam.

"I'm Addi – er, Reid on the west coast – and this is my boyfriend Anubis. He's not fond of necromancers," Addi informed him.

"Were you like named after the Egyptian god or something?" Sam inquired.

"I _am_ the Egyptian god," Anubis replied. Addi elbowed him. "What? I am."

"He's _mortal_."

"And he's here with his dead friend. He really should be able to identify various death-related gods."

"You have got to be kidding me," Sam said. His eyes moved back to Addi. "Are you supposed to be some Egyptian god, too?"

Thunder rumbled and lightning crackled across the sky. Addi gave a short, forced-sounding laugh. "Greek," she corrected. "Shut up, Uncle."

"Who are you talking to?" Brooke asked.

Addi gestured toward the sky. "My Uncle. Just ignore him, he's not going to –"

Lightning crackled again, almost menacingly. Anubis glared in the direction of the sky. "Lord Zeus, if you zap the poor necromancer –"

"Defending him now, are we?" teased Addi.

"Technically speaking I'm just requesting that your trigger-happy uncle doesn't hit the kid with lightning," Anubis replied, trying (and failing!) to defend himself.

Sam's eyes moved back and forth between the two gods.

"…what the hell…?" Brooke said quietly.

"Wait a minute," Sam said, "I thought all the Greek Gods were either Zeus's kids or siblings or something like that…"

Addi laughed. "Poseidon and Hades don't get any kids, then, Samhain?"

"…Oh."

At that moment, Addi got a familiar feeling. Her hand flew to a mask-shaped clip in her hair. If she wasn't immune, she'd probably have burned her fingers touching it.

"Forgive me for leaving, but I'm needed elsewhere," she said. "Good-bye, Samhain. Good-bye, Brooke. It was nice meeting you two!"

"What's going on?" Anubis asked her quietly.

"I don't know, but Nico has the pin. Or at least he did. And if he doesn't, then it's Percy. The boys never call me like this. Never," she declared. Then she vanished.

She reappeared next to a black haired teenaged boy holding a pin that matched her hairclip.

"What's going on, Perc?" she asked concernedly.

"We need you to come with us, Ads," her younger brother replied. "Annabeth and Hazel agree."

"I can't, Little One," Addi said. "Seven half-bloods, Kiddo. Firstly, you've already got your seven, don't you? Beth, Jason, Piper, Leo, Hazel, Frank, and you, of course. And also I'm a goddess. You know that even if they don't, silly. I'll be looking for Nico on the other side of this, though. Maybe we'll run into each other."

He put his arms around his older sister. "I just got you and Nico back, but I can't keep you with me and he's been taken hostage by the biggest bad guy we've ever faced."

"Is the Olympians' hero a little overwhelmed?" Addi asked. Percy nodded. "Me too, Perc."

After a few moments of silence, he said, "We'll find him, right?"

Addi squeezed her little brother tightly. "We will."

_A/N - I MISS WRITING NICO. Hey, did anyone recognize the pin/hairclip pair from Crossing Over? Looks like Nico gave his boyfriend his half of the set... _


	12. Fish, Hope, Laughter and Dreams

_A/N - This chapter was difficult to write, but I did it anyway! I hope you like it. _

Twelve: Fish, Hope, Laughter and Dreams

"Nico… Nico…" mumbled Percy. He rolled over, still asleep. "…Nico…"

Hazel was sitting on a hammock across from Percy's. She watched him roll back over onto his other side. He seemed unable to find a comfortable position, as he had been changing position so much that he'd almost fallen out of his hammock several times.

"I know, little brother, I know," whispered another girl's voice. Hazel turned around and saw Reid standing there with a stuffed clownfish in her hand.

"Reid?" Hazel whispered. "Did you stow away or something?" Reid chuckled and shook her head. "Then how'd you get here? We're in the air right now, aren't we?"

"Yes we are, Hazel," replied Reid. "I'm just here because Percy hasn't had this in months," she showed Hazel the clownfish, "and he probably needs it right about now."

"What?"

"He sleeps with it every night at home. It's comforting for him," Reid explained. "And with Nico missing…"

"Right," Hazel said. _Percy told us about his relationship with Nico while we were on the quest,_ she remembered. "That must be hard on him."

Reid sighed. "You don't know the half of it, Hazel." She walked over to Percy's hammock and tucked the stuffed fish under his arm. She whispered, "Nemo's here, little brother. And Nico will be soon."

The still-sleeping teenager squished his teddy-fish and smiled a little bit.

"Nemo?" Hazel repeated.

"It's a clownfish. Like the movie?" Reid said. "Wait … you probably haven't seen it, never mind." She smiled. "There's this movie called Finding Nemo – it's about these fish, and one gets fishnapped by divers (that's Nemo) and his dad goes on this big adventure to find him. It's one of Percy's favourites. I'm rather fond of it, too, and Nico just thinks it's cute how excited Percy gets when we watch it."

Hazel smiled. Reid played with the zipper of her black leather jacket. Hazel quietly said, "I think I'm going to go to sleep now, Reid."

"Good-bye, Hazel," replied Reid. Then she picked up a lone gemstone off of the ground. "Be careful with these, Hazel, dear. Although I see you're getting better about them."

"What?" Hazel asked as Reid tossed the gem to her.

Reid didn't respond. She adjusted the zipper on her black leather jacket and just… vanished.

* * *

><p>It was dark and cold. Now, Nico was used to darkness and the chill that often accompanied it, but here he could see absolutely nothing, and the coldness penetrated Nico's jacket. He knew the others were looking for him. But he doubted that they could find him in this freezing, dark prison. Even though there was no light, Gaea's power prevented him from shadow travelling.<p>

Gaea had whispered to him a couple of times.

_They won't succeed. They'll never find you. They will all die before they even start to look for you. You will die here._

"I won't," Nico muttered. "I'll escape. Addi and Percy will find me. We'll survive. We'll win." He kept repeating it to himself. "_We'll survive. We'll win. I'll get out."_ Every time he said it, though, he found himself feeling less and less confident that it was true. How long had he been here? Hours? Days? He didn't know anymore. He knew Percy and Addi wouldn't give up on him. But it was hard to imagine that they'd ever be successful, even if they did manage to defeat Gaea and the giants.

_No,_ he thought, _don't think that way, Nico. Percy saved Olympus. Adria is a goddess_._ They can do this. They can save you. _He couldn't lose hope. They would find him. He'd escape. They would win.

* * *

><p>Carter's first thought when the frazzled-looking black haired teenage girl appeared in his room was <em>déjà vu.<em> Before he had time for a second thought, however, she had run to him and thrown her arms around him. "Addi, is something wrong?" he asked.

She released him. "I'm sorry for just showing up like this, Carter, but I need your help," she replied.

"Sit down," Carter said, gesturing to the chair near the bed. She did as he suggested and he sat down on the bed. "Now, what can I do to help?"

"I know you and Sadie are busy with teaching your little trainees, but if you can, I need help looking for Nico," Addi said hesitantly. "I hate to ask, but the best from both camps – and really the only people who know him well enough to help me find him – are on this big save-the-world quest."

"Of course we will," replied Carter almost instantly.

Addi's eyes filled with tears, but instead of crying, she smiled and sighed with relief. "Thank the gods. All of 'em. Greek, Egyptian, Norse – even Apollo!"

"Norse?"

"Damn."

"Am I to assume they're real too?"

"Forget I said it, Carter. Just forget it."

"Are you friends with them?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Louis would get a kick out of this, I wish I could tell him."

"Well, you can't."

"So you're admitting there's something to tell!"

"That is _not_ what I said."

"Hey, I could be commenting on the Apollo thing…"

"No you could not! You'd be having your heart weighed and talking to your daddy before you even got the words out."

"You wouldn't kill me."

"Oh just you watch me, Carter Kane."

"So has Apollo violated that restraining order recently?"

And with that, he got her laughing. Carter had barely seen her smile since December. But now her black eyes sparkled with laughter and she had a genuine grin on her face. Then there was a soft knocking on the door. Before Carter could say anything, the door opened and Sadie burst into the room followed by Jaz and Walt.

"What's going on in here?" she said loudly. Then she spotted Addi. "Oh, hi Ads."

"How did you get in?" asked Jaz.

"Who are you?" asked Walt at the same time.

"Addi di Angelo, I climbed through the window," Addi replied, holding out her hand to Walt. "I don't think we've met, Walt. Although I'm fairly certain you've heard of me."

"Through the window," repeated Sadie. Addi smiled at her.

"Would you expect me to have just waltzed through the door? The last time I did that, I was distraught. No, climbing in through Carter's window to ask a favour and laugh a bit with a good friend is certainly the way to go," Addi said.

"You guys can go back downstairs," Sadie told Jaz and Walt. They did as they were told, and as soon as the door clicked shut, Sadie sat down next to Addi. "So, what was the favour?"

"I need help looking for Nico," answered Addi.

"He said we'll help you, of course," Sadie said.

"Naturally," replied Carter.

Addi threw her arms around the Kanes. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

* * *

><p><em>Demigod dreams suck<em>, Percy thought. He looked around the dark cave that his dream had brought him to. Near the wall was a smallish person, curled up and wrapped in an aviator jacket to protect himself from the cold. Percy could feel the cold, even though he wasn't really there. There was barely any light, and Percy figured that if it wasn't for the small, silver masquerade mask pinned to his shirt that was giving off a faint silvery light, he wouldn't be able to see anything.

"We'll survive… We'll win… I'll get out… We'll survive… We'll win… I'll get out… We'll survive… We'll win… I'll get out…" the boy mumbled weakly. "We'll survive… We'll win… I'll get out…"

"Nico," whispered Percy, realizing who was in front of him. He ran to the smaller boy and dropped to his knees beside him. "Nico, can you hear me?"

Nico pulled his jacket closer to him. "They'll find me… Percy and Adria will find me… We'll survive this… We'll beat you…"

"Nico, I'm here. I'm right here," Percy said. He tried to put his hand on Nico's shoulder, but his hand passed right through him. He wasn't really there, after all. "Please hear me, Nico. I'm right here."

"We'll survive… We'll win… I'll get out…" repeated Nico. "We'll survive… We'll win… I'll get out…"

"Nico," Percy mumbled. He felt a familiar stinging in his eyes as they filled with tears. "Nico, I'm here. Please, Nico, if anyone should be able to see and hear me, it's you. You're the Ghost King. Aren't I kind of a ghost right now?"

"We'll survive… We'll win… I'll get out… They'll find me…" Nico muttered. "_Please_ find me, Percy."

Percy was actually crying now, he couldn't stop himself. "Nico, I'm right here!"

"_He'll never be found, Perseus Jackson,"_ Gaea's voice whispered to him. "_And you and your friends will all die on your pointless quest."_

"Why are you doing this?" Percy asked, practically shouting. "Why are you keeping him here?"

Gaea didn't respond. As the cave went dark and Percy felt himself waking up, all he heard was Nico's continued whispering. "_We'll survive… We'll win… I'll get out…"_

_A/N- So many emotions! AND THE RETURN OF NICO! The next chapter will pick up with Percy waking up, so I'll try to get it up ASAP. Well, I always do, it's just that often times it takes me a while to write.  
><em>


	13. Lucky

_A/N - Three part chapter, focusing on Percy and the rest of the Seven, then Addi and her companions, then Nico. _

__Thirteen: Lucky

Percy awoke with a start, clinging to Nemo, his stuffed clownfish. He looked over to Hazel, who was in the nearest hammock to his. He wanted to make sure he didn't wake her up as he got up and walked up to the deck.

He stood by the rail, stuffed fish still in hand, and watched the world fly past. Nemo was the only connection he had to his life in New York on this boat other than Annabeth. He hadn't actually brought Nemo with him from home – he had a sneaking suspicion that his older sister had a hand in its sudden appearance two nights ago. He was in kind of a weird place just then. He had been lost for months, not knowing who he was or where he was from, and as soon as he got that back, it was taken away from him again. Even though he knew the world needed saving again, what he most wanted was to be in his apartment watching a movie with Nico on one side of him and Addi on the other. In other words, he wanted to go home.

"Percival Edward Jackson," Leo Valdez's voice said from behind him, "what are you doing out on deck this late at night?"

Percy turned around. "Firstly, it's Perseus. Secondly, my middle name is Julian. Thirdly, I couldn't sleep and I didn't want to wake Hazel."

Leo looked mildly uncomfortable at the mention of Hazel – they still hadn't quite figured out the Sammy thing – but ignored it and said, "_Lo siento_, Percy. I default to Edward when I don't know a guy's middle name."

Percy chuckled. "Nico does something like that…" he trailed off. _Louise,_ he added internally. _And it became Addi's unofficial middle name after that day last summer that Nico yelled at her for an hour over gods know what._

"I have to go back – make sure we're not flying off in the wrong direction," Leo said. Then he turned and walked away, leaving Percy alone on deck.

Not long after, another person wandered out onto the deck. It was Jason Grace, wearing a sweatshirt that said "NEW ROME" in big, worn looking letters on the front to protect him from the chill of the air at this height. He walked to the rail near Percy.

"Jason?" Percy asked suddenly, after they had stood in silence for a few minutes.

"Yes, Percy?"

Percy hesitated. "…is it nice?"

"What?" asked Jason confusedly.

"Going home," Percy replied. "After you got your memory back. Was it nice?"

Jason paused, thinking. After a while, he said, "Yes."

"You're lucky," Percy told him. "I'd give anything to go home, even for a little while."

"You could talk to Leo, he might make a stop at Camp Half-Blood if you ask," Jason suggested.

Percy shook his head. "We don't have time for that. And even if we did… It wouldn't feel right. It won't until after the quest."

"Why?" asked Jason.

"Nico's missing. Addi's looking for him. Without them, it wouldn't feel like home," Percy said simply.

"Addi is Reid, right? And your Nico is the same Nico that occasionally shows up at Camp Jupiter?" Jason asked. Percy nodded. "Annabeth mentioned him in passing when we first went to Camp Half-Blood. They're Greek, then?"

"Well, Addi's kind of a special ca– I mean, yeah," Percy responded.

Jason gave him a funny look, but didn't comment on what Percy half-said. "Do they spend much time at Camp?"

"They float in and out. At least, they used to. I think they planned out their visits so they were synchronized and when I wasn't there," Percy told him, thinking back. "Addi was scared to talk to me and Nico was mad at me for a long time. After the war, though, I think it was mostly just that he preferred to visit when Addi did. They actually went to school last year, though, so…" he paused, realizing he'd kind of gone off on a tangent. "Sorry. No, they don't, really."

"Not in New Rome either," Jason replied.

"I'm not surprised," said Percy, "at least as far as the last year or so is concerned. I mean, I've practically lived with them since they moved into their apartment."

They stood in silence for a while.

Finally, Jason said, "It's strange to realize how many people were looking for me."

Percy nodded. "When I heard people talk about you, I wondered if there were people that worried about me."

"I did too," admitted Jason. "And then as I got my memory back, and remembered some of Octavian's crazy ramblings about the Greeks and I thought…"

"…that they'd hate you?" finished Percy. Jason nodded. "Yeah, I know the feeling."

"We really are lucky, though," Jason said. "Juno's plan could have failed very badly. She took a serious risk, switching the two of us. We're lucky not to be dead."

Percy stared out at the clouds, thinking of his dream about Nico. "Yeah… lucky."

* * *

><p>Addi was incredibly frustrated. She just couldn't figure out where Nico was. Usually, she could pinpoint his location. Although it usually helped that Nico was usually wearing the pin shaped like her symbol of power that she had given him for his birthday a few years previously.<p>

"UGH!" she said angrily, stomping her foot.

Carter put his hand on her shoulder. "Relax, Ads. We'll find him."

"He's underground and magically protected. I can't even get into his dreams properly!" Addi responded. "I'm feeling helpless, C. No, worse than that – _useless_."

"You're not useless," replied Carter sympathetically. She shook her head, her eyes sparkling with tears. "Adria di Angelo, we are going to save Nico. And _you_ are the reason that we will be able to do that."

Addi hugged him. "Thank you, Carter Kane." She released him and took a deep breath. "I still can't find him. I just want to…" Her eyes snapped open. "I have an idea."

"See what I mean?"

Addi grabbed onto his hand and they disappeared. They reappeared in a waiting room.

"Lady Adria?" Charon said. "Who is your companion? Where is the Ghost King?"

"Nico has been kidnapped, Charon. Carter here is helping me to find him. For politeness's sake, I've elected to enter my Uncle's territory through the main entrance," replied Addi.

"You're rarely polite," Charon pointed out.

"Your boss's favourite son is rarely kidnapped," Addi responded.

"Fair point. I don't suppose you've got –"

Addi carefully placed two drachmas on the table. "Coins for passage across the Styx. Did you really expect me to come unprepared?"

After a long walk through an underworld Carter never expected to visit, he and Addi found themselves in Hades's palace.

"Lord Hades," greeted Addi, curtsying politely. Carter nodded awkwardly, not really sure what to do.

"Greetings, Niece," Hades responded.

Addi ran to him and gave him a quick hug before returning to Carter's side. "Hello, Uncle!"

"You have a purpose in being here, I assume," said Hades.

Addi nodded. "I know that I am outside of the usual rules much of the time, Uncle, but I figured you'd want me to consult you before bringing Carter into your domain."

"You've never been one for following rules, Niece," Hades commented. "Alas, the courtesy is unnecessary in your case."

"What? Why?" asked Addi. "The one time I actually _follow_ the rules, I don't have to?"

"Adria, what is your job?"

"Goddess of Mystery and Disguise, you know that."

"But that is not the extent of your duties."

"Of course not. I don't think there's a single Olympian god who _only_ has to deal with the stuff in their title."

"My point exactly," declared Hades. "You and Melodite are the goddesses of heroes, are you not?"

"We are," confirmed Addi.

"You follow heroes' rules," Hades told her. "You always have, even if you have not always been aware of doing so. A hero would, theoretically, be able to waltz into my domain with whatever companions they want. You have this right as much as any hero to do this, Adria. The visit to the palace was unnecessary – especially considering your current mission. Needless to say, I appreciate it, but it was something of a waste of time."

"How have I managed to live as long as I have without _knowing _that?" Addi muttered.

Carter nudged her. "Focus, Ads."

"Right." She turned to leave the room, then pivoted so she was looking at her uncle again. "I don't suppose you have any ideas for where our favourite little hero is, do you?"

"Gaea has hidden him from me," Hades replied sadly, shaking his head.

Addi sighed. "From me, too. I was hoping that maybe…" She faltered. Carter put his arm around her comfortingly. They turned to leave again.

Just before they exited the room, Hades called, "Niece, there's a surprise waiting for you at the entrance to Asphodel. I made an arrangement with Carter's father."

"You _didn't_."

"I did. Now don't keep him waiting."

When Carter and Addi reached Asphodel, a tallish boy with black hair wearing a black leather jacket dropped out of a tree. "Hey, love."

"An! You're here to help?"

"'Course I am."

Addi threw her arms around Anubis, who kissed her.

"Hey, lovebirds? We're on a mission here! Can your little reunion wait?" requested Carter uncomfortably.

"As if I could _ever_ forget that we're on a mission," replied Addi. "s'all my fault anyway…"

"No, it isn't," Anubis and Carter said in unison.

"It's Gaea's fault, Ads," Anubis continued.

"There was nothing you could do," added Carter.

"Yeah, sure."

* * *

><p>"<em>We'll survive. We'll win. I'll get out."<em>

How long had he been here? He had long since lost track.

"_We'll survive. We'll win. I'll get out."_

He had asked – begged – her to tell him why she had captured him. He wasn't one of the Seven. He'd never had a chance of being one of them. So why was he here?

"_We'll survive. We'll win. I'll get out."_

Bait, he had decided. He must be bait. A distraction for Percy, perhaps. Maybe even for Addi. But he wasn't even sure the were looking for him.

"_We'll survive. We'll win. I'll get out."_

No – he couldn't think like that. They had to be looking for him. They had to be.

"_We'll survive. We'll win. I'll get out."_

What if he was wrong, though? He didn't have the strength anymore to fight. And he didn't think he'd be able to escape on his own. He could be stuck here forever.

"_We'll survive. We'll win. I'll get out."_

He needed them.

"_We'll survive. We'll win. I'll get out."_

He missed them.

"_We'll survive. We'll win. I'll get out."_

The other day, or at least he'd thought it was the other day but really there was no knowing, he'd had a funny dream.

"_We'll survive. We'll win. I'll get out."_

It was still dark, so dark he couldn't see his own hands in front of him. He was still in the cave. He still heard Gaea's whispered comments and threats.

"_We'll survive. We'll win. I'll get out._

But through it – behind it – was a faint voice. Familiar. Calling to him. But he couldn't answer. All he could do was keep repeating it, over and over again…

"_We'll survive. We'll win. I'll get out."_

All he'd wanted was to call back. To tell the familiar voice that he heard it. That he was losing hope. That he needed help.

"_We'll survive. We'll win. I'll get out."_

And then the voice was gone. Just gone. And he was left alone again with Gaea.

"_We'll survive. We'll win. I'll get out."_

Alone.

"_We'll survive. We'll win. I'll get out."_

He was lucky, he supposed, that he wasn't dead.

"_We'll survive. We'll win. I'll get out."_

Ha. Right. Lucky.

"_We'll survive. We'll win. I'll get out."_

Because this was so much better.

"_We'll survive."_

But he wouldn't give up hope.

"_We'll win."_

He prayed to every god he could think of -

"_I'll get out."_

_**Please. Just let me get out of here.**_

**__**_A/N - Lucky Chapter Number 13! I hope you liked it, loves!_

_I feel like Nico's imprisonment will probably haunt me for a while. His little scenes are gonna give me nightmares - and I'm the one writing it all down. They're dark in both a literal and figurative sense - when I picture them in my head, it's just black, because there's no light. Add onto that the fact that he has this constant reminder in his ear that Gaea wants him dead along with all his friends and family..._

_Yeah. Anyways, Review if convenient. If inconvenient, review anyway._

_[I jest, you don't have to review if you don't want to]_


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